I Thought I Knew You
by Saij Lorelei
Summary: Pranks don't always go as planned. Being the only Jotun in Asgard doesn't help the situation and maybe all Loki needs is someone to comfort him and laugh. Funnies and fluff and angst and eventual lemons. Drabble-ish. Honestly too much to mention: full details & warnings inside. Major AU. Tony/Loki
1. Chapter 1

AU- Marvel/Norse Myth combined. Eventual Loki/Tony and with that the rating will change to M and probably be published on another site to accommodate the sex that will occur. I'll let you know when that happens. Some warnings about the future of this work:

Implied rape, groping, cross-dressing, gender bending, pregnancy, torture, cursing, lemon, slash, and possibly a lot more- depends on how the story goes.

The characters may also seem OOC sometimes (or all the time), and oh well.

Also, this first chapter was a bunch of one shots about Loki's childhood and whatnot. They were individual chapters before, now they're all one and things have been changed. The page breaks indicate growing up and whatnot, it shouldn't be that hard to grasp, but if it is; if it's hard to get through, please let me know.

* * *

Odin walked briskly from the main hall to his chambers, waving away anyone who came to him. He pushed open one of the large double doors and the lovely Frigga greeted him from the bed with a smile. He smiled back at her, shut the door and slowly made his way to where she sat on the edge of the mattress. A large, golden haired babe sat upon her knee and she bounced him an inch or two in the air.

"Back already?" She asked with a large grin- the All Father had been away for far too long in her opinion.

Odin chuckled and took a quick breath, "My Queen..." he began.

"Oh no, what have you done?" Frigga rolled her eyes. Whenever her husband wanted a favour or was trying to get away from a harsh reprimand, he always tried to ease it with 'my queen'.

"Well..." the King grimaced and gently adjusted a lump he carried in his cape, "I have something for you- well, not only for you, but for Ásgard as well and-"

"What do I have to do?" She sighed, lifting the baby from her leg and setting him down on the bed.

Odin was silent and Frigga stood up, only to be told she would be better off taking the news sitting down.

"Just be out with it!" She finally said, throwing her hands up- exasperated.

The All Father gave on firm nod and unfurled the lump in his cape he had held so carefully. He revealed a newborn with skin as blue as the sky, wrapped in thick furs and set him in his wife's lap.

Frigga set her hands on the baby and stared at him. She traced the dark blue lines on his forehead with her thumb and for a moment thought her fingers were becoming numb from the intense cold the child radiated. The baby gurgled at the touch.

"You stole a baby from Jötunheim and brought him to me to raise? What were you thinking?"

Odin waved away her accusation, "Oh, I hardly stole him- he was left alone to die in the temple when I took the Casket, I merely brought him with me." They looked at each other for a moment and Frigga looked away first to gaze at the baby. "You said you wanted another child." Odin weakly offered.

Without looking up, the Queen answered him and he knew then that he had won- "But he is Jötun." She thought of all the humiliation the child would feel amongst her people.

"He may look so, but will not be so. For all intents and purposes, he will be Ás."

After a moment Frigga sighed softly and nodded her head, "Alright." She agreed, "But I will choose the name this time."

Odin gave a small smile and he watched his wife stroke the baby's cheek. "And what name will you bestow upon the great blue Ásgardian?"

"Oh..." she mused as she lay back on the bed and set the Jötun head to head with her first born. She watched the two boys wriggle against the silk sheets and when their hands brushed and they became still, just realizing each other's presence. They clasped hands above their heads and the larger, blonde baby shrieked and pulled his hands away which were already an intense red just from that second of contact. Frigga inspected the plump hands and decided he would be fine, just a bit of numbness and they would surely be sore for a few minutes. She pursed her lips and glanced up at Odin as she poked one of her fingers into the blue child's hand and experimented.

"I take it you forgot about this burning cold sensation?" Her finger came away completely numb and red after two seconds of touching the baby's palm.

Odin nodded absently, "I sure did. But I can't take him back, he'll just be dead."

"So you are saying we raise him and just don't let him touch anyone? That's awful! He will never feel like we love him, he'll never feel that he's part of our family." She rubbed her half frozen finger in her hand and sighed. as far as she could tell, she could touch his skin and just feel extremely cold, but couldn't touch his palms of the underside of his fingers because of the burns. She decided she could work around that and covered the Jötun baby's small fist with her hand and nodded to herself in resolution.

"Loki," she said quietly and looked up at her husband, who held his own small smile, "Loki Odinson."

* * *

Frigga rested on the window seat with her sons when Odin came into the room. She sat with her legs facing inside and her upper half twisted to look over Ásgard. Dressed in thick golden robes, she held Loki on her lap, the toddler himself in nothing but a wrap for his bottom. Thor sat beside his mother on the seat, swathed in white and silver furs, reaching out to catch a snowflake.

"A little chilly to be sitting by an open window during a snowfall." Odin stated, coming closer to his wife and children and ruffling Thor's soft golden hair.

"Thor will be fine," Frigga responded, "and seeing that Loki comes from a realm made of ice, I am sure he does not mind." She tickled Loki's nose with her fingernail and he gazed up at her with his bright red eyes for a moment. Frigga tilted her head and smiled at her blue boy.

Loki went back to watching the snow fall and the King and Queen continued to talk. Frigga wondered if Loki could catch a cold, and of course he could, but would it be caused by the Ásgardian weather? She was not afraid to say she was flying by the seat of her pants when it came to the care of her Jötun child, but so far she could say she had done well.

She watched him and knew what was coming when Loki's eyelids went slack and he wrinkled his nose. She began to reach behind her and when the boy suddenly inhaled, she quickly brought her hand back with a metal plate just as he sneezed. A spike of ice shot out of his mouth and struck the plate with a piercing 'TING!'

Frigga smiled calmly and put the dish behind her again and Odin stared with wide eyes. Still smiling, she looked up at her husband and noticed his bewildered look,

"Oh, we have done this before." She looked back at Loki, "Have we not?" she asked playfully as she pushed him to lay down on her legs and blew a raspberry on his blue skinned belly. Loki laughed outright at his mother's antics and Frigga murmured in agreement. She brought her fingers to her lips and warmed them against the freezing cold they received from kissing the boy's belly. She rather enjoyed the feeling when she put her lips to her Jötun child, she likened it to kissing soft, freezing marble.

as his wife played with the sons, Odin reached around her for the plate she used to shield Thor, who was in the line of fire, from the icy sneeze. He brought it close and saw the deep dent made from the force of the gesture. He shook his head in disbelief and quietly chuckled.

"He will be talented in seið- a great force to be reckoned with," Frigga stated in a low voice, not looking up from the children, "I see it."

* * *

"No... No!"

Frigga awoke with a start and listened to the screaming from the next room. She flung the silk sheets off of her and, wrapping a robe around her, she hustled next door.

Standing in the doorway. she watched one of the younger nannies struggle to get Loki dressed. The young woman noticed the mother and instantly stood and bowed her head,

"I am sorry if we woke you, my Queen, but I am having hard times getting Loki ready."

as she apologized to the Queen, Loki laid on his back and kicked off the pants the woman had tried to put him in. The Queen smiled at the nanny and told her it was alright as she strode into the room and elegantly sat herself on the floor next to the boy. She took the pants in hand and looked at her son,

"Loki, what is all this? Why do you make such a fuss this morn?" She brought the leggings to him and stuck his feet in before he fussed again.

"No! I don' wanna wear those." He wriggled out of them and stood, huffing lightly.

Frigga tilted her head towards him and said flatly, "Why not?"

"Too tight." He replied.

"Too tight? You did not complain of this yesterday."

He ignored her comment and continued to explain, "They're too tight here." The boy splayed his hands and motioned in circles around his privates.

The eyebrows of all the nannies in the room shot to the ceiling and Frigga barked a laugh, which made everyone jump.

"Fine," she said and held her arms out for Loki to cuddle in and shivered, "But you must wear something..." She pursed her lips in thought and spoke again, "I suppose you can run around in your wrap for today, and I will have something new for you by the morrow, alright?"

Loki grinned up at her and the Queen ran her fingers through his hair, smiling all the while.

"Well," she sighed, getting up from the floor and brushing down her robes, trying to shake away the cold she felt from her son, "just leave him as is and then start with the lessons." She turned to leave and heard the murmurs of 'yes, my queen' behind her. Frigga went back to her bedroom and dressed herself, then set out to find her husband.

She found him out on the sparing grounds, facing the tiny Thor, who held a wooden sword out, ready to attack his father. After a moment of glaring on Thor's part, the child lunged forward with the sword raised high above his head, meaning to strike his opponent hard. Odin casually side-stepped the attack and raised his hand to the back of Thor's neck,

"See, there, I have already defeated you. If I had a sword, your head would be rolling on the floor now. You are too brash- think before you move."

Frigga stepped out from under the eaves of the castle and her gorgeous gold and white gown glowed in the sunlight. Thor dropped his wooden weapon and ran to her, forcing a harsh hug around her legs. The mother smiled and pat his head before looking up at Odin, who came to her with a light smile of his own. Thor went back to his sword and practiced his moves when Frigga spoke.

"Loki requires new clothing." She said.

Odin's eyes shifted back and forth in confusion. "Alright?"

Frigga reached out and straightened her husbands cape, "Our clothes are not to his tastes, he finds them... constricting. I would seek more comfortable wear for him and have it by tomorrow morning."

Odin raised his hands in exasperation and rolled his eye, "What does he want, a dress?"

The Queen stood firmly in place as she made her request, "Well, yes- I would have him in Jötun clothing."

The All Father gaped at her in surprise and when he tried to protest, Frigga cut him off, "You said, when you brought him to me, that he would look Jötun but be as; his clothing pertain to his looks, and they will make him feel more comfortable and this is now a demand, not a request."

Odin rubbed his one good eye with a knuckle and sighed, wondering how he could possibly get clothes from Jötunheim. How would he explain to Laufey that he came to the blue King's realm so he could retrieve clothes for the Jötun boy he stole the last time he was there? That Ásgard clothes hurt his crotch and wanted to wear a skirt instead?

Frigga broke his train of thought with a little insight, "You know what clothing from Jötunheim looks like, I suggest you go to the royal seamstress and have her draw up some designs."

Odin tried to speak again but Frigga raised her hand to silence him. "Have her plans brought to me, I will approve them and she can begin work. He must have at least one set of clothing ready for tomorrow." She smiled, kissed her husband and walked back into the shade of the castle while Odin stood, defeated.

He sighed in exasperation and told Thor to get to his lessons inside and he himself made his way to the seamstress as he was told to. He grumbled to himself the entire way, thinking of how much he loved his wife, and how whipped he was.

* * *

"Mother,"

"Hm?" Frigga looked up from the book she read and turned to her Jötun son, who sat on the floor reading his own books.

"Am I evil?" he asked her.

Not phased by his question, she merely stared at him for a moment. She knew this day would come, but wished she could postpone it. "No, you are not evil. Why do you ask this?"

"Sometimes..." the boy looked pensive, "Sometimes the servants talk when they think I cannot hear."

Frigga furrowed her brow; damn those ladies, putting ideas in her son's head that he wasn't a good person. "What do they say, my love?"

Loki rose from the floor and stood next to her seat, looking right into her hazel eyes with his red ones. "They said my eyes were evil and full of the blood of the others Jötun's have killed." His eyes began to well with tears, "I do not understand." He whimpered weakly.

Frigga put her book aside and hoisted him into her lap, "Loki, you are not evil, you are not a monster. Sometimes people speak because they do not understand, nor care to. They judge all by the actions of the few."

Loki cuddled against his mother's chest and huffed.

"It is up to you to prove them wrong," she continued, "Show them not all Jötnar are what they have been made up as- be yourself and they will see. Do not listen to their ignorant tongues any longer." She kissed the top of his head and her skin broke out in goosebumps from the chill.

Loki had gotten off of her lap and gone back to his books while she mused. Watching him, she felt terrible pains in her mind and knew that they were glimpses of the pain Loki would feel in the future- betrayal, rage, confusion, and heartache. Suddenly she doubted herself- was she really raising Loki to be strong in mind and good in soul? Would he be able to overcome the obstacles that he would surely come across? Picking up her book, she feigned reading and continued to think. She knew his life would have been made easier if they had put a spell over him to make him took like they did. No one would have questioned him; he would be just like his brother, Thor. But she had put her foot down when Odin suggested the spell. Frigga wanted the Jötun to surpass the racial stereotypes that would be put against him. She wanted him to be different and feel pride when others in Ásgard looked up to him. Loki was already showing prowess in his seith capabilities and Frigga's prediction of his talent was still strong because of it. She smiled when she thought of the people of Ásgard standing in awe at his power. And feeling another premonition coming on, she closed her eyes and let the vision wash over her.

_Frigga stood in the throne room and looked over all the Áesir who filled the vast space. To her left she saw Loki, tall and muscled, swathed in robes more elegant and regal than Frigga herself ever wore, sitting in the throne comfortably. She knew suddenly that, somehow, he was King of Ásgard by the look on his face. He spoke, but she could not hear his voice. The crowd stood still and confused and the King rose out of his throne and silently raised his hands up and forcefully brought them down on the air and spread them out. A light flash of green extended a foot from him as he had waved his hands and his unseen force of sei_ð _thrust the entire crowd of Áesir to their knees. Frigga looked up to the adult Jötun in slight panic to see him look over his subjects with a sneer that exposed his sharp teeth._

The Queen jolted out of her trance and practically snapped her neck to look over at Loki- who still sat reading on the floor. Her heart was racing after what she had seen in her vision, and as she looked over her presently innocent child, she knew he would need far more attention and careful care than initially expected. Even though she had not seen the events leading to his ascension to the throne, she knew, like in a dream, that Odin had been killed and Thor was in chains and she had been forced to watch him control the people of Ásgard like dolls. She would not let the future turn out that way- would not let Loki become so... evil.

* * *

Thor and Loki stood stock still on the sparing grounds; the golden haired boy with a large wooden sword clenched in both fists, and the raven haired in a fighting stance- legs and arms spread wide. Thor lunged, going to swing the sword at his younger brother's neck when Loki swiftly shot a spire of ice from his fingers at the weapon and shattered it.

"Loki!" Thor whined, "No tricks, I can't even compete!"

Loki giggled at his pouting brother and threw his hands up in mock surrender, "Then you will not be able to defend yourself when faced with adversity, but I will do as you wish." Loki was maturing fast and with his brother always demanding to spar, he was also becoming quite the formidable opponent.

Thor couldn't get enough of his Jötun brother, even after twelve years of growing up, fighting, Loki's tricks, Loki not wanting to share, etc. There were, of course, times when he found his younger brother annoying, like when he was the punch line of a joke, but he also loved him when he was included on a prank. He also had no interest in books the way Loki did, but enjoyed it when Loki read aloud to him.

Thor bowed to his brother and went to collect a new weapon, "Thank you, brother."

Loki readied himself again, plucking daggers he kept strapped to his thighs out of their sheaths. Thor returned with a real sword this time and Loki smirked at him. They positioned themselves again and moved to strike each other when they were interrupted.

"Thor!"

The brothers stopped their spar and watched three boys near their age file out of the palace and come into the sunlight. They all smiled brightly just as Thor did and addressed him again.

"Thor, Hogun's father will take us on a hunt today, we want you to come with us!" A platinum haired boy said excitedly.

"A hunt?" Thor's heart sped up- it would be his first hunt, and how he had dreamt of it!

A rotund, red-headed boy stepped forward, "We'll get to taste our first hunt's meat as well!"

Thor laughed, "Volstagg- always thinking of food."

Volstagg grinned at the statement.

Finally the last boy with black hair and thin eyes stepped up,

"Will you come? My father would be most honored to have the All Father's son hunt with his own."

Thor was too excited to care about the honour Hogun's father would have- he was, after all, only a boy looking for adventure. "We would be delighted to hunt with you, friends. Would we not, brother?"

Loki had stood silently in his place during the exchange and when his older brother had unwittingly included him in their activities, he perked up in spirit, but made sure not to show it. He enjoyed his time with Thor and found his friends to be polite, but idiotic. He noticed that, in their presence, Thor became just as stupid- changing his opinions that Loki knew well, just to fit his friends'.

At the implied invitation Thor gave him, Loki saw the expressions of the three boys drop. Thor, thinking everyone loved his brother as much as he did, never saw the change.

"No, Thor." Loki declined and Thor turned to face him, confused. "This is your chance to hunt with your friends. My time will come- go with them." He lied and when he saw the relieved expressions on their faces, he was suddenly furious.

Thor nodded at his brother, appreciating him and his thoughtfulness before running away with his friends in tow.

When he had raced out of sight, Loki sighed and twirled his daggers in his fingers. After a moment, he angrily shoved them back into their sheaths and stalked away into the castle. No matter how much Frigga and Odin and Thor said they loved him and that, even though he was not blood, they would always love him as family- he knew no one else would accept him, just like Thor's friends didn't. It was true that most times he would rather be alone or left just with Thor, but sometimes he had a fleeting wish for friends. He had tagged along with Thor and his enough to know they were not his sort, but surely there was someone who could be his friend too.

* * *

Ok, childhood is out of the way. The next chapter will start the story with Loki being his young adult self and it should be pretty straightforward from there.

Also, a word about the etymology of the races: I believe I heard somewhere that "Asgardian" wasn't correct, but sometimes I like to use it for the hell of it. I'll be using more Norse terms as the story progresses and I'll list them here at the bottom when I stick 'em in.

Quite a few of these words haven't shown up in the story yet: I'm making it a learning experience. Here, have some knowledge lol

**Seið**- Ásgard's magic (I decided that Asgard would have a specific name for their magic, and that other realms have their own names for magic too)

**Ánses**- the name for people of Ásgard (like ours is "Human")

**Ás**/**Áesir**- sing./pl. male Ánses

**Ásynja**/**Ásynjir**- sing./pl. female Ánses

**Frost Giant**- the name for people of Jötunheim

**Jötun**/**Jötnar**- sing./pl. male Frost Giant

**Jötunja**/**Jötunrir**- sing./pl. female Frost Giant

There ya go. These are just about 100% correct, though I have taken some liberties with spelling and complexities. It's my creative license as a writer (i.e. "I do what I want"). I have more words (I did tons and tons of studying) but they'll pop up as we go.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki sat in the bath big enough to fit five full grown men when a servant woman knocked on the door and promptly entered the bedroom. The doors to his room were large and gold, just like everything else in Ásgard, and his room and bath area were no different. From the doors you could see the entire bathtub, laid into the floor, in it's own open aired room directly across the bedroom. And the bedroom itself was mostly empty- Loki had not collected much from his few 'adventures' yet, but for an immensely large bed to the left and a wardrobe and full length mirror opposite of that. Loki swiveled his head to look at the woman as she stood by his bed with a small stack of clothes in hand.

"I have your clothes for the evening, Prince Loki." she said, keeping her head down.

"Fine," Loki called back to her, "leave them on the bed, I will dress myself."

"Of course, sir." The servant set the stack down and left the prince's bedroom.

Loki sighed and rubbed his wet hands on his face, massaging his temples. He had a headache- his father had been coaching him and his brother all day on feast etiquette. There was to be a large banquet in their honour that evening and it would be Thor and Loki's first social event. Apparently the official giving of the title of 'prince' was a big deal and everyone in Ásgard was expected to be there. Loki pulled himself out of the bath and let the warm evening air dry him as he went to the mirror and stared at his body. He looked at every inch of his skin fleetingly and the thought crossed his mind for just a moment, that no matter how presentable, how princely he made himself appear- they would only see his colours and trademark Jötun features.

Loki shook his head, trying to scatter the thoughts, and turned to the clothes on his bed. The outfit had been made specifically for that night- pale brown with gold trim, lightly patterned with filigree along the edges. The colours weren't entirely to his tastes- he preferred black and green with his gold, but his mother pleaded with him to humour his father and wear them just for the night. He was lucky to wear just the colours; Odin wanted him in traditional Ásgardian attire for the night he would reveal Loki to Ásgard. Loki had protested so profusely (threw a tantrum, Thor had called it) that the All Father gave in on the condition he wear the right colours.

Loki laughed to himself as he pulled his body length loincloth over his head. His father's naïveté astounded him- how could the All Father possibly believe that the servants and guards who worked in the palace would keep their promise to never speak of the Jötun living there for twenty years? And Loki had been outside the castle before (without his father's knowledge, of course) to meet the keeper of the Bifrost, Heimdal. He rather liked the man, though he would never let anyone know it. To Loki, the occasion of his father 'revealing' his Jötun son to the Áesir could be either most uncalamitous, or become an all out war- collectively accepting and ignoring him or driving him out. Odin knew there would be an uproar, but believed it would consist of cheers of acceptance, for who could question the rule of the mighty All Father, Odin?

Loki pulled on his leggings and gauntlets, checking that his sharp, black finger and toe nails were proper, just the way he liked. Now he was ready for the last piece of his attire- the crown. He moved to the dresser and stared at the thin gold metal sitting atop it. Odin requested the brothers design their crowns for the coronation, since he was not given the choice to make his own when he was made prince in his younger days, and so they had, though Loki didn't know what to expect for his brother's crown. They thought theirs up separately and didn't speak of them, saying they would reveal them to each other at the coronation. Loki had second thoughts about wearing his at all. Certainly he liked it, but he wondered if he should really be making such a statement the way he would with his crown. Wouldn't the guests be scared enough at just the sight of his oddly coloured skin and eyes? Disturbed enough by his Jötun clothes? He sighed and rubbed a finger over his lips in thought and jumped in surprise when there was a knock at his door. He smoothed down his clothes and turned away from his crown.

"Come." he said.

The door opened to reveal Frigga, looking the very definition of 'Queen.'

Loki deflated some at the sight of his mother. She came into the room and held her arms open to hug him and he gave in automatically. She hugged him and then held him at arms length, inspecting his appearance, though she hardly ever had any qualms about it. The Jötun appreciated that his mother touched his skin without a second thought. She didn't mind the intense cold nor the numb feeling her hands felt during the contact, but she made sure, as did he, that she didn't touch the underside of his hands. He remembered learning the hard way that he wasn't allowed to lay hands on anyone when he and Thor first practiced hand to hand combat on each other. Apparently choking his enemies would be very effective for Loki- Thor couldn't speak for a week because of the frostbite.

"You look like a prince, darling." She smiled.

Loki raised a fine eyebrow at her comment, "Don't I always look like a prince?"

A laugh snapped out of Frigga's throat, "No. You and Thor always look to be a couple of ruffians- running about the palace calling each other names and rolling around in the dirt after a fight!" She took a deep breath and smiled softly, "Tonight, you and your brother become real princes; someone that all of Ásgard can look up to."

Loki only stared at his mother and said, "But I am not a real prince."

Frigga sighed sadly and ran her hands down the Jötun's arms. "I will tell you something, but after the feast, and maybe you will find it important, maybe not. But I want you to be in good spirits tonight, enjoy yourself."

Loki pursed his lips and nodded and she smiled at him. She noticed the crown on his dresser, went to it and picked it up gently. She inspected it and turned to Loki, still with the smile on her face. She held it out to him and he was reluctant to take it, she noticed of course.

"Not thinking of showing up without it are you?"

Loki trained his face to be straight, "Of course not."

She tilted her head and hummed, "Mmhm."

He sighed and took it from her. "Don't you think this will be too-"

"No. It will be just fine. You are a prince of Ásgard, Loki, and to not wear your crown on this important day will light the thought that you don't belong here, but you do. You do belong here with us." She looked down at the metal held loosely in her sons hand, "I like your choice." She said, referring to the long protrusions from the front of the crown. "Very bold, yet sleek. Maybe a little threatening even. Perhaps Áesir need to know you mean business?" She moved back to the doors of Loki's chambers, leaving him with her words and she only stopped to tell him they would be ready in a few minutes, and then she closed the door behind her.

Loki turned away and clicked his tongue. He fidgeted with the crown and stared at the floor for a moment before looking in the mirror and placing the band on his head. The gold gleamed under the setting sun and the corner of his lips lifted, he really did like it. He reached up to the tip of the protrusions and pricked his finger it. Yes, the horns suited him well. He took in his more forbiding stature and nodded to himself that he was ready, and made his way out to the banquet hall.

He met Thor on his way to the coronation and the overly muscular blonde slapped his brother on the back, a big grin plastered on his face. Loki held his hands up to his forehead head just under the horned crown,

"Thor, please, I have the worst headache."

"Ha! You'll soon forget about all your aches when you have drank a stein of mead with father and me."

Loki pursed his lips, "You know I detest ale- it is so foul." He thought back to the first time he and Thor had drunk and shivered; it had been a night he wished he didn't remember.

"But you must drink with me to celebrate our official title as Prince!" He looked at Loki with large wet eyes, "Please, brother- one drink?"

The Jötun gave an exasperated exhale, "As you wish. One-" he held up a thin finger between them, "one drink." He glanced at his older brothers hair and turned to face forward, waiting to be let into the banquet hall when their father announced them. Still facing front, after a moment of silence he shook his head and had to ask.

"What_ is_ that on your head?"

"Feathers, wings really." Thor replied, not missing a beat, knowing his brother would have to comment on it. Thor's silver crown also wrapped over the top of his forehead but was swept up over his ears to form outstretched wings.

"_Why_? Why do you have metal wings on-"

"What is wrong with wings? You don't like-"

"I did not say that I did not like them, I am merely questioning your choice to have them on your crown."

"Because I like them." Thor said simply and turned to Loki with a smile on his lips.

Loki cocked his head and asked flatly, "Do you think yourself a great eagle, Thor?"

"No, but-"

"Eagles do not like thunder and lightning."

"Why do you protest so much to my feathers?"

Loki turned forward again and Thor followed suit. Both being quiet for a second.

"I do not wish you to look a fool on our first feast." The Jötun finally said and Thor turned again to face his younger sibling,

"So you _don't_ like them!"

Loki scoffed but the blonde continued, "I do not think I need to mention how you will look at the feast, you goat."

Loki growled at the mention of his horns, he knew his brother would have something to say, "We can't all be as gorgeous as you, Thor."

Frigga suddenly stepped out of the hall and smiled at them, "Almost ready."

The young men took deep breaths to prepare themselves and Loki ran a hand over his hair, making sure it was smooth, and Thor adjusted his crotch. Loki rolled his eyes when he saw him do this.

'Always the gentleman.' he thought.

Frigga heard a cue from the All Father on the other side of the doors and she nodded to them- any second now. Thor quickly nudged Loki in the side.

"You know I do not mean it, right? I like your horns- they're... well they're something else." He almost chuckled, but miraculously held it in.

Loki chuckled instead and nodded, "I know, brother. And your feathers are... acceptable."

The doors suddenly opened wide and the boys heard the All Father finish his long speech-

"-the Princes of Ásgard!"

And an uproar of cheers and claps followed the conclusion of his speech and the unveiling of the All Father's sons.

Frigga stood behind her boys and, when she saw they had not moved, pushed them forward into the lights of the hall. Thor moved first after the push and was all a-smiles, lifting his meaty hands to wave at the crowd. Thor stepped close to the platform on which the throne sat and Odin laid on him a small smile.

Loki stepped out behind him and in his ears he still heard the thunderous clapping, but mixed amongst the cheers were whispers and mumbles at the sight of him. His heart sank the tiniest fraction. He knew this would happen and it was certainly better than he expected but he had still hoped, deep inside the back of his mind, that the Ásgardians would surprise him and maybe even cheer harder than they had for Thor. Hoped that they would look past his appearance and assume he was just like them; trusting the All Father's judgement. Loki stitched a weak smile on his face and moved to stand near Thor. At least his head didn't throb as bad as it had when they first stepped into the room. They stood near their father with their shining crowns and the King raised a hand to gesture to them.

"Thor and Loki Odinson!"

The cheers erupted again and Loki tried to hold back a grimace. He only wanted to sit and eat and try to get through the night. Odin stood and the boys thought he was going to announce the commencement of the feast, but instead stepped down from the throne and walked into the crowd of smiling Áesir, shaking hands and nodding periodically.

Thor and Loki shifted uncomfortably, glancing at each other and the crowd, unsure of what they should do. And then their mother was behind them again,

"This is where you greet everyone. Follow your father's example," she whispered to them, "be friendly and remember their faces, who they are, thank everyone for coming- they came for you." She pushed them forward again, a little gentler this time.

They took a few steps and the people in the front of the crowd noticed them come. Thor held Loki's arm and grinned at him nervously,

"Stay by my side, _prince_ Loki."

Loki scoffed and rolled his eyes but smiled all the same and they walked up to the group. Frigga stepped up to guests as well, jumping into her usual greetings. Many women gathered around her and they gossiped. The crowd parted slightly for the brothers and watched them curiously. The boys managed some smiles to offer and they found themselves by Odin's side again. When in doubt, stick with dad.

Odin saw a man across the way and said man grinned and hustled to him.

"Hávard! Hávard, how are you?" Odin beamed at the man and slapped him on the shoulder much like Thor did with others. Hávard was a tall, thin man with a small, pointy black mustache and his dark brown hair was swept back over his scalp.

"My King," the man said, "I am honored you would have me with you at the coronation of your sons. It is a proud day for Ásgard."

"It is, it is!" Odin agreed and he waved his sons over to meet the man. "My sons, this is Hávard Starkson, the High Defender of Ásgard." He looked towards Thor, "He is the man who made your weapon's creation possible."

Thor thought of his hammer, Mjolnir, which he left in his room since he could call it to him, and looked at Hávard in surprise. This frail looking man had figured out how to make his prized weapon?

"That is astounding!" Thor beamed at the man, "Well, I thank you- I do not know where I would be without my hammer."

"Yes, well, I may have designed it, but only the finest dwarven craftsmen could have pulled it off! But I thank you- I am happy it is your companion."

Loki stepped closer to them, keeping a shoulder hidden behind Thor's, he didn't want to leave himself open to the stranger.

"You must have quite the intelligence to arrange the makings of such a powerful piece." He offered. Loki was intrigued by the man's smarts, but had an inkling of doubt within him because even though this Starkson claimed such brilliance, it sounded like he could not make his creations work without outside assistance. To Loki, you weren't truly an inventor, weren't truly a craftsman, if you couldn't put to work your creations as well as just design them.

Hávard took Loki in, and let his eyes linger on the long golden horns on his forehead before smiling, "I like to think so, yes. I thank you for the recognition, Prince Loki- not many say it."

Odin laughed and addressed him again, "Where is your boy, Hávard?"

Hávard looked dismayed and stammered, "I am sorry, my lord, but he could not make it. He left on a hunt that he apparently deemed more important than dining with his king; I could not get him to come to his senses."

Loki's eyes squinted at the man as he apologized all over himself about his absent son- he was lying, Loki surmised.

Odin either didn't notice the signs or didn't care enough to call him on it and just chuckled, shoving a large hand onto the smaller man's shoulder, "I understand- boys will be boys. You should have seen how hard it was to get these two to be at their own coronations tonight!"

The two men shared a hearty laugh and the boys merely chuckled. Other guests shuffled in close to the King, silently asking for his attention and he gave it, nodding a goodbye to Starkson. Loki spotted his mother on the other side of the crowd and went to her, shrugging off the warm hand that rested on his shoulder as he left.

Frigga saw her blue skinned son walk through the crowd to her and the ladies near her noticed her distraction and quieted their gossip. She leaned toward him and touched her cheek to his, greeting him with a loving smile. Then she looked towards the women surrounding her and saw they were all completely silent, taking in every piece of her son's body and princely crown. They had most likely never seen a Jötun so close, if they'd seen one at all. Loki glanced at Frigga from the corner of his eye and she opened her mouth to speak but closed it when he raised a hand to silence her. He let the silence ride out for another few seconds more until he made a sudden, jolting step forward and shouted,

"Boo!"

The front line of ladies all jumped and screamed in fright, one woman even gave him the pleasure of fainting mid-scream. Loki threw his head back and laughed loudly- his mother was right, the horns made him seem more threatening. Frigga elbowed him in the side and tried to give him a stern look of reprimand, but her smile showed through anyway.

His laughter died down, "Haha! Oh, I am sorry ladies- just a little bit of fun." He smiled wide, the lines around his mouth deepening, showing his delight from scaring the wits out of his mother's friends. Frigga wrapped a hand around her son's freezing cold arm and squeezed it gently.

"I'm sorry my dears, my Loki is something of a trickster- do not mind him."

"Oh, and he is charming!" called a voice from the group.

Loki raised his brows at the woman who pushed her way to the front. A tanned woman with enormously long, curly blonde hair appeared through the crowd of other women. She wore a low cut, flowing dress that framed her breasts, and gold and jeweled rings on her fingers; thin white gold filaments weaving through her hair.

"Freyja! I am so happy you could make it to the coronation." The Queen declared and the two women came together and touched cheeks.

"Oh, my Queen, I would not miss this for all the realms! I see I made it in time for the show as well." Freyja laughed breathily and motioned to the women who still looked a little pale from their scare. She looked expectantly at Loki and raked her eyes over him.

Loki shifted his vision back and forth between Freyja and his mother for a moment before he realized she was waiting for an introduction.

"Oh," he stammered, "Loki, madame." He made to give the beautiful woman a bow and froze when she gasped.

"No, no my dear Prince-" she swiftly moved closer to him, "Greet a lady like this." And she leaned into his body and cupped her hands over the backs of his shoulders where his tunic and gauntlets didn't meet. She grazed her cheek against his and, as she drew away, lightly scraped her fingernails over his skin- feeling the ridges of his Jötun markings.

Loki's headache surged back to life when he tried to wrap his head around all the signals this woman had just sent him. He glanced at Frigga again and by the way her eyebrows were raised to her hairline, he knew it wasn't just him who thought the exchange was very obvious. Loki opened his mouth, though he was unsure of what he would say; at a loss for words for once in his life, but he was rescued from what would surely be an awkward conversation by the booming of the All Father's voice.

"Let us feast!" He shouted, and everyone cheered.

Loki had looked back at Freyja and smiled apologetically as he backed away, wanting to get to the table and as far away from the woman as he could. The look on her face made his heartbeat speed up- her pale green eyes half-lidded and teeth pulling the corner of her plump bottom lip in. She was truly beautiful- one of the few women Loki thought to be so (apart from his mother) and the looks and touches she just gave him scared him to death.

The food had been set out on the tables as they all mingled and it sent aromas throughout the hall. Three long tables took up most of the space and everyone gathered round, trying to decide where they would sit as they waited for the King and royal family to sit first. Odin stood at the head of the middle table, Thor on his left and Frigga and then Loki on his right. The seating arrangement had been discussed beforehand and Odin declared that he would never sit at a table where his wife couldn't be on his right hand. Loki hadn't minded in the least, preferring to be near his mother.

Odin had given the nod to sit and he and Frigga seated themselves in their tall backed chairs easily. Immediately after, the princes began to sit and, in an instant of boredom, Loki made a low hand gesture- laying his palm flat and sweeping it to the side. He watched Thor idly as the blonde went to sit heavily and missed the chair that suddenly moved away, falling to the floor and making an unmanly yelp on the way down.

Loki laughed so suddenly he choked on his own saliva; he hadn't expected Thor's fall to be so funny. Thor gripped the edge of the table and popped his head up, one hand on his winged crown to straighten it,

"Loki!" He warned.

As he righted his chair and sat in it, Loki quieted his choking laughter to a chuckle.

"It's not my fault you cannot sit properly, brother."

All the other guests had moved to find seats when Thor took his tumble to the floor and didn't see his embarrassment. As Thor made himself comfortable in his seat, he felt a strong hand on his shoulder,

"What happened, Thor- eat so much you couldn't stand any longer? The feast has yet to even begin!"

Thor looked up into a thick face covered from scalp to chin in red hair.

"Volstagg!" Thor boomed with a grin. The burly prince rose from his seat and wrapped his arms over the redhead's shoulders and slapped him heartily on the back. Volstagg chortled and returned the gesture, and drew away when another young man appeared.

Platinum hair swept back and the makings of a small mustache on his lip. "Ah, I bet he saw the great and lovely Freyja and felt his knees go weak!"

Loki rolled his eyes at the comment and spoke up before Thor could get to it, "Thor has yet to lay eyes on such a beautiful lady. It was I who had the privilege, Fandral."

Fandral raised his eyebrows at Loki- impressed.

"Oh, your brother is a regular heart smasher among women, Thor."

Thor's smile widened when he heard the sweet voice from behind him and he turned to see a fair skinned woman with long black hair. She held a small modest smile and it bent into a grin when Thor greeted her and the young man behind her.

"Sif! Hogun!" He clenched them both in a bear hug and Loki felt a twinge of jealousy in his heart; by the gods, he wished he could have friends like Thor's.

"Well, indeed my brother is, Lady Sif. Just now he made a gaggle of women swoon as he walked up to greet them!" The group of friends laughed and Loki stood from his chair,

"My dear brother exaggerates in a way to make me feel better," he smirked, trying to play off his annoyance as charm. "As you can see," he swept a long thin hand down his front from the tips of his golden horns and down, "I hardly cause ladies to swoon so much as scream in terror. My name is Loki." He bowed graciously to her and Sif bowed back with a small embarrassed smile. The boys gave each other looks with raised brows. Fandral fanned a hand at his own face and silently swooned, mocking Loki's gentlemanly ways, which made the Jötun scowl. None of the boys noticed his disdain and went to take their chosen seats- Sif on Thor's immediate left and Fandral next to her, and then Hogun and Volstagg across the table on Loki's right.

All the guests had taken their seats and the hall was filled with talk and laughter. Thor and his male friends, who just named themselves 'the warriors three', joked and told their own versions of the adventures they'd had growing up.

They recounted how they met Sif- hearing what sounded like cries from a lady in distress in the forest, the boys rushed towards the noise in hopes to save a fair lady. And a fair maiden they found! Drenched in sweat and clutching a giant broad sword, hacking away at crudely made sparring dummies. The men had stood at the edge of the clearing, panting in their exertion to find the 'damsel in distress' and stared in amazement. Never before had they seen a woman with a weapon in her grip before. Apparently, they had discovered, she came to the clearing secretly and trained; longing to be a warrior like her father, but knew that he would deny her the training to be so. The boys instantly liked her and they trained with her, enjoying her sass and eagerness.

Everyone laughed and and Loki was impressed to find a lady wanting to fight for herself, instead of leaving it to the men. She worked hard and was already becoming the finest warrior of the group.

Servants arrived at their sides with jugs of wine and when Loki waved them away from his cup, Thor chastised him.

"Brother, you must drink with me! You promised me at least one."

Loki conceded with slumped shoulders, the hope that Thor would have forgotten his words dashed.

"I made no such promise, but fine- a drink." A servant filled Loki's cup and he delicately held it up to Thor's to cling them together in a toast to themselves. Thor threw his back his wine and exhaled the expressive sound of a refreshing drink. He watched his younger brother sip at his own cup and the blonde flashed him large wet eyes.

"Drink with me, Loki!" He whined. Loki sighed and with slight hesitation, swallowed the entirety of his cup. The Jötun grimaced at the dryness of his mouth and the sudden, intense heat down his throat and Thor quietly laughed and grinned at his brother. The blonde prince dashed his goblet to the ground and cried for another and one more was immediately supplied. Loki took a deep breath and prepared himself for a long night.


	3. Chapter 3

The coronation had come to its conclusion and the end of the night found Hávard at his front door, letting himself into his house. He closed the door behind him as quietly as he could, wanting nothing more than to drag his drunken self to bed and sleep his life away. Of course, that couldn't happen.

"Hey, Dad."

Hávard stopped in his tracks and slumped his shoulders in annoyance. He turned to face his son, and stared unseeing at him.

His son stood straight and proud, his hands shoved into pockets just below his hips. Hávard never understood why his boy would choose to wear the weird clothes his mother wore- these... jeans.

"How was the party?" The young man inquired.

Hávard tried to roll his eyes, but discovered he was too drunk to even manage that. He had almost lost his balance.

"It was hardly a party- we do not dance and scream and fornicate on the floor while drunk like Midgardians. It was a ceremony; a feast, boy." Hávard refused to believe that his son would ever mature and earn his title as a man, even though he was already 25 years old. He called him 'boy' and reveled in his sons bitter reaction.

"Sounds like a party to me." The 'boy' smiled.

Instantly irritated with him, Hávard raised his voice, "Well, it wasn't! Now away with you. I have so much work to do in the morning, I must sleep."

The younger man flinched and walked away, leaving his father standing alone. He trudged to his bedroom, which was crammed full of things from Midgard that he tinkered with, and a few books which were almost never opened. In one corner of his room sat a golden suit of armor- a little dusty because it was hardly ever worn- the man would rather work on inventions than be outside fighting a bilgesnipe. He looked at it and sighed. The armor was nice when he wore it, not like in his teenage years when he was thin and lanky and swam in the suit- he had filled out nicely since then, muscled and thick. He had modified it himself in order to not be so bulky and a terrible hindrance to movement, but it was missing something... 'pizzazz' he was sure his mother would have said. He sat on the end of the bed and ran his fingers through his unruly, spiky hair when his door was opened and his father stood in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, son." Hávard muttered, "I'm not thinking clearly, very tired." He nodded to himself as though his small apology made up for forbidding his son to attend the Princes' ceremony. Made up for lying to the King and making his son seem like an arrogant, self-absorbed brat for 'going on a hunt'. It didn't matter that the father really did think those things about his son or that most times he really was like that- the King should be able to make his own opinions. Too late now. The muscled man thought of these things and stared at his father with bored eyes. He knew he should've gone to the coronation anyways and crashed the party, but he had been too pissed off to even move. Sometimes he wondered why he still lived with his father, he was certainly old enough to get his own place. This was one of those times and he thought 'what the hell am i waiting for?'

Hávard turned to leave and stopped, but didn't turn again to face his son, "Get some sleep, Anthony."

* * *

Tony's introduction to the story. He'll get more later, sorry it was so short in comparison to the other chapters.


	4. Chapter 4

It was very late in the night when all the guests finally dragged themselves to their homes, congratulating the All Father and Frigga on the success of the evening and the coronation of their sons.

Sif and Hogun had ended up carrying Fandral, and Volstagg waddled behind them with his full belly. They said their goodbyes to Loki and looked back at Thor, who had fallen asleep at the table, his head held up on a fist.

Loki sighed and went to him, but didn't wake him just yet. He merely listened to the even breathing of his drunken, sleeping brother. He rested his elbows on the back of the chair and his chin on Thor's head and closed his eyes, leaning against the golden prince. Loki opened his eyes again and fingered the tip of one of the wings on Thor's head idly. He stayed that way for a moment until the sleeping boy stirred and mumbled incoherently, waking to find out who leaned on him. He felt the weight lift, though he would have hardly called it heavy and felt cold arms under his, lifting him from his chair.

"Come along, brother; off to bed with you." Thor heard the voice whisper in his ear. Trying to obey, he lifted himself from the chair and wavered, almost collapsing onto his younger brother. But Loki had anticipated this and was ready to hold up all his brother's weight with his own. Thor slung an arm around Loki's shoulders and leaned his head on Loki's, burying his nose in the smooth black hair.

"Mmm, why do you smell so good, little brother?" Thor murmured.

"Oh, now I know it's time for bed!" Loki laughed and wrapped an arm around Thor's middle, moving him out of the hall. As they left, a servant passed by with plates, cleaning the tables for the night. Thor reached out for him, missed and cried weakly,

"Another!"

Loki waved the servant away, "Pay him no mind." He said to the man. Thor tried to protest but was silenced. "You have had quite enough 'another's."

Loki hauled his brother to his room, the blonde barely helping by falling over his own feet, and they arrived without much incident. Loki brought him to the bed and started to unravel himself from his brother's grasp.

"Can you undress yourself?" Loki asked in a loud voice, trying to make sure the blonde was paying attention.

Thor looked up at him after flinging himself on his bed, and he tried to blink away his blurry vision.

"Why Lady Sif," he said in a low purr, "I never imagined you would be so forward!"

One thought crossed Loki's mind for a split second- 'Oh Gods!' -as Thor grabbed his wrist and yanked him down onto the bed with him. Thor gripped Loki's thin hips and tried to move him to lay on the bed, the Jötun struggling to get away all the while.

"Thor, what are you doing?! Stop!" Loki cried desperately, when the larger man tried to spread his legs.

"Oh, Sif," Thor sloppily grinned and half laid on top of his brother, "Thou doth protest too much." And he pressed his lips hard against Loki's. Loki roughly pushed on Thor's shoulder to roll him off.

"Brother, you are very drunk and have misplaced your affections- I am not Sif!" Loki raised himself onto his knees, barely balancing on the soft bed.

Thor rose up as well and Loki placed both hands on his brothers armor covered shoulders again, trying to hold him at arms length. A thick frost began to coat the silver armor. Thor huffed and tried to blow away the golden locks that fell in his face.

"I do not want to force you to want it, madame..." Thor smirked, and Loki had to wonder for a second if his brother could really get girls with that line. But Thor leaned in again, going for another kiss and forcing Loki's arms to bend under his strength.

"Please!" Loki groaned, knowing he would have to use magical force soon if he couldn't get off the bed.

"Haha! That is all I need to hear!" Thor cried and quickly reached out to Loki, his fingers brushing his naked thighs.

"Thor..." Loki warned strongly and steadily scooted back to get his brother's fingers away from his skirt. But the blonde kept on with his advances and reached further into Loki's loincloth.

"Thor... Thor!" Loki began to shout as his brother wrapped his hand around something long and soft. Thor snatched his hand back with a hiss as his hand burned intensely at the contact with the sensitive skin and Loki himself jolted away from his brother's advances-

"THOR, you're grabbing my- Ahhh!"

And he toppled to the floor with a yelp.

Loki heaved a breath and laid on the floor, collecting his thoughts, and Thor held his hand up to his face and inspected the frostbite that burned into his palm and then he poked his head over the edge of the bed. His lips were pursed and he had a bright blush on his face when realization came over him.

"Sorry, brother." Thor apologized quietly. "I thought you were Lady Sif."

For the life of him, Loki couldn't understand how his blue skin and red eyes were mistaken for a beautiful pale skinned woman- Thor must be completely wasted. Loki held up a slim hand for silence and slowly got up from the floor.

"Don't speak." He said weakly, a blush on his own cheeks. He sighed again and straightened his clothes and began to leave Thor's chambers.

"Sleep it off, Thor." And he left his brother to reflect, somewhat, on how drunk he really was.

* * *

In the morning, Thor awoke to cloudy skies with a hint of sunlight peeking through and he groaned. He felt as though he hadn't slept at all- his eyes burned and head pounded. He wanted to stay in the bed all day and wallow in his hangover, but his stomach suddenly growled, loud and long, and he groaned again. He would eat breakfast and then lay around the rest of the day. The blonde slowly rose out of the bed and noticed he had slept in his coronation clothing and he hissed at his pained hand, looking at the burn on it in confusion. Suddenly he remembered the night vividly and in it's entirety. He cradled his head in his hands and whined as he remembered the look on his brothers face after he had-

'No-no-no!' Thor shook his head violently and banished the thoughts about last night. Taking a deep breath, he changed into a new set of clothes and kept his winged diadem on while he ventured out of his chambers for food.

In the banquet hall again, this time only one table set up for breakfast, Thor plopped himself into a chair and began to pile various foods on his plate and stuff his mouth. The doors to the hall opened and he didn't look to see who came in- most likely a servant.

"Good morning, brother."

Damn.

Thor turned to see Loki, freshly washed and donning a long, concealing robe, his horns absent. Loki never dressed before the first meal of the day, Thor didn't understand why. His hair wasn't slicked back yet, instead it hung limp and damp around his face.

Thor slowed his chewing and attempted speech. "I' sawwy 'out 'ast 'ight."

Loki gave him a small smile, went to the table and began to place food on his own plate. "I know you are, Thor. But I would rather forget the evening's... events. Did you get your hand looked at?"

Thor nodded slowly at everything he said and watched his brother daintily choose between slices of bread. The night came back to him again and he shuddered as he thought of a key point where he found himself nervous and suddenly self-conscious. He glanced over to Loki and was grateful the Jötun's robes had not happened to miraculously be blown open- feeling his brother's... appendage was bad enough; he didn't need to see it also.

Loki noticed his brother's change in demeanor and picked up his plate and turned to him, going to say goodbye and take his meal to his room. Thor and Loki gazed at each other, and Loki knew the blonde would speak, as much as he didn't want him to. Thor ripped off a huge chunk of bread and chewed, not looking at his brother now.

"You weren't that big when we were younger." He muttered.

Loki's entire body expressed his exasperation- rolling eyes and slumping shoulders, wavering stance. "Thor, please."

"I'm merely stating-"

"Well, I have grown up since then!"

"Obviously!" Thor waved a hand towards Loki's nether regions.

Loki regained his composure and pursed his lips as he headed for the doors of the hall. Thinking better on leaving Thor alone without a word, he stopped at the door and turned his head- making sure his brother would see his smirk.

"Don't be jealous, Thor." he purred, and left his brother wide-eyed and slack jawed.


	5. Chapter 5

As the morning dragged over to midday, Loki made his way to a room he used to practice his sorcery. In his younger years he had set fire to the library enough times after wrongly summoning seið that Frigga set up his own chamber encased in its own spells so he didn't burn down the palace. His accidental explosions and bonfires were no longer a regular occurrence, as Loki was practically a master at his art now, but he liked the solitude the room provided. It was his very own space, unlike his bedroom where a servant might walk in at any moment- he had expressly forbidden any servants in the chamber for fear they would touch his work or merely muss up the ambience of it.

He arrived at the entrance of the chamber and the door opened of it's own accord for him. He stepped inside and, after the door closed, breathed deep. The room was dark, pitch black if the candles weren't lit, and just like the rest of the palace- the walls were gold. Along the walls at intervals of a few feet were gold pillars that reached all the way up to the ceiling, covered in filigree and other fancy markings. In between the pillars and draped over the tables hung dark green curtains.

The Jötun flicked his finger and the intense snap between his fingernails created a spark which he blew seið into and the fire that was borne from it snaked onto candlewicks throughout the chamber.

"Good afternoon, Prince Loki."

Loki jumped and slammed himself against the door, palms flat on the wood, heart hammering in his chest when he heard and then saw the lady laying on a table. She lay on her side, ankles crossed and one hand balled into a light fist to hold her head up.

"Madame Freyja!" Loki gasped and collected himself so as to not look so shocked, but he had already lost that game when she smirked at him. She pouted then and lay a smooth hand on her hip,

"Oh, I am sorry if I frightened you."

"What are you doing here?" His eyebrows came together in confusion, "Are you looking for the Queen?"

"No." She whispered and slid off the table, her dress riding up the side as she rose, revealing to Loki the quickest glimpse of her thigh before it was set right again. The lady sauntered over to the prince and his heart began to pound again. Freyja wore a different dress from last night- today was more modest: no cleavage, no slit up the side. She even wore a small and thin coat to cover her arms.

"I came to see you, my prince." She purred and was then only a foot from the Jötun. "I did so love our exchange last evening-"

"Exchange?"

"-I thought I would return and see what else you had in store for me." Suddenly Loki felt her hand on his chest and it began sliding down over his ribs and belly. Once again in this woman's presence Loki had no words. She was so forward that his mind wiped itself clean in its panic to decide if he should welcome her into his arms or shove her off. He couldn't tell if he wanted her or not- not that he had any prior experience in sexual encounters. It occurred to him that he could hardly feel her body heat and he was confused. Because of his own extremely low body temperature, others touches were very warm, almost hot even, but here with this woman he couldn't feel any heat coming from her at all. It was the same last night when she first greeted him at the banquet if he thought about it and for a moment he wondered if he was awake- surely this was a dream that he couldn't feel her temperature.

It was then that she stopped her fingers trailing down his front and instead felt his arms and markings again, trailing them all the way down to his hands where she interlaced her fingers with his; palm to palm. He didn't move a muscle as he waited for her to rip herself away from him, screaming about the frostbite she received from his hands, and when it didn't come, when she continued to hold his hands he got the most confused look on his face. He looked down at their joined hands and heard her giggle.

"Wondering why you don't burn me?"

He looked back up at her, mouth hanging open a sliver.

She giggled again but explained to him that a sorceress named Amora built her a spell that would shield her from a Jötun's freezing burn. That, in reality, the spell lowered the temperature of her skin to that of a Jötun- Jötun don't burn each other. Instead of thinking about the spell in terms of the situation at hand, Loki imagined that, if he could use that spell on his mother, he would be able to hold her hand for the first time in his life. He was going to ask her to share the spell with him when she silenced him.

"You know," Freyja said quietly, pulling Loki away from his lack of thought, "I was glad to find the weather so foul because I could dress warmer..." her hands were now on his naked hips, fingers pressing delicately on his blue skin, and she whispered, "-and have you undress me."

The slight purple blush blossomed on his cheeks and the blood from his arms and stomach drained and gathered in a different spot. He clenched his jaw, hoping and fearing that the gorgeous woman would come closer and press against him. And Freyja did just that, smiling naughtily when she felt Loki's obvious arousal against her. The man gasped at the pressure and looked into her pale green eyes, scared. She saw his fear and murmured to him, caressing his cheek with a slim and soft hand.

"Oh, don't worry your pretty head," and suddenly she cupped his firm manhood in her other hand, "I've dealt with Jötun like you before."

At her admission, Loki was furious and he instantly pushed her away, a feral growl ripping out of his throat. Freyja's eyes widened in surprise when she was pushed away, not expecting the prince to deny her advances.

"I am not just any Jötun, Lady Freyja!" He almost shouted, his fists clenched at his sides and claws digging into his palms. He was so enraged that the woman would seduce him and make him think she wanted him only for her to slip and compare him to others. as if she knew him.

"Of course not, my prince, I-"

"I think you should leave."

The woman tilted her head and then a mischievous smile formed on her lips; she would play the game. She composed herself. "As you wish," she walked up to him again and he moved aside, his seið opening the door, "Until next time, my dear." She said and ran her hand over his naked thigh as she departed.

Loki slammed the door shut himself and the handle rattled loudly at the abuse. He turned back to the room and kept his fists balled at his sides, beside himself with anger. He chastised himself for succumbing so easily to Freyja's advances, almost giving in. Angry that she would compare him to others- other Jötun- that she had apparently bedded before she tried her hand with him. But he was incredibly curious about her fascination with him. She was interested immediately upon meeting him and obviously wanted him with some fervor if she would have a spell put upon her so she could touch him. In turn, he was angry at himself for turning down his first opportunity for sex, but Freyja was so intimidating what with her forwardness and supposed experience. He decided he was right to turn her away for the insult against him and that he would wait for when the time was right, instead of Freyja choosing it for him. And so Loki's first time may not even be with the lovely lady- he hoped he would find someone else before having to settle on the beautiful, albeit creepy Freyja.

Loki heard thundering from outside the castle. It drew him away from his thoughts for a moment and he wanted to smell the air if it was raining. He took a deep breath and left his sorcery chamber, heading out for the fresh air to try to clear his head.

The Jötun leaned against the open doors of the palace, watching the rain pour down on the great city of Ásgard. A slight wind rustled a few loose strands of his hair and blew gently at his clothes. He felt the presence of Frigga behind him and he wished he hadn't turned Freyja away so he could make use of her spell just then.

"Come to tell me your horrible secret?" He said softly, a blank stare on his face. He remembered his mother saying she had a piece of information for him the night before.

She stepped forward and stood beside him, silent all the while.

"Well?" He said.

"Loki," she began, hesitating, "I do not want you to think that-"

"Spare me your quibbles, mother. Just say it." Loki's face was still emotionless when she looked at him.

Frigga sighed through her nose and looked forward into the rain as well. She wondered why he was so angry today, he seemed at least somewhat happy yesterday. "You are Laufey's son."

Loki sneered and then raised his eyebrows, impressed. "The King of Jötunheim. Hm." The Jötun crouched then, thighs spread open to balance himself. He watched the downpour become a sprinkling, the small droplets of water leaving their short-lived rings of ripples in the puddles.

The Queen found her son's lack of reaction alarming. "Does the news not surprise you? I suppose I did always say you were a prince, and it is true, but not only of Ásgard."

"It was a surprise, and yet not. I always knew I was," Loki chuckled when the thought came to him and a feral grin smeared onto his lips, "burdened with glorious purpose."

"Loki..."

"It is too late now, mother." He stood, "I cannot unlearn what I've been told, unless, of course, you want I should take your advice to 'not believe anything I hear, and only half of what I read."

The mother and son looked at each other, one with brows knit together in worry, the other with a faint smile.

"I thought not." He said and walked out and away into the rain, unsure of his destination.

Frigga watched him go, feeling helpless. There was nothing she could say that would erase his pain, if he felt any at all.

As Loki walked through the city, all sorts of thoughts ran through his mind and they all angered him. It was a small relief to know who his father was- that he was alive, but then, how had he come to be with Odin and Frigga? If he was another King's son, how had he gotten to Ásgard as a baby? He cursed at himself for not asking these questions and more when his mother had told him, but he had felt such an overwhelming fear in his heart that he just wanted to flee. He was surprised at himself for holding it together the way he had in front of Frigga when usually it was only her that saw his raw emotions. Somehow that had changed since the coronation. Suddenly, everything seemed to be up in the air- everything was different, even though it wasn't.

Glancing around him, he caught Áesir stealing looks at him and he thought he saw hatred and accusation in their eyes. The fear he felt multiplied and he panicked and broke into a run, trying to get away from their gazes. The rain had begun again, falling in huge drops and coming down hard. Loki thought he heard someone running after him and calling his name, but he didn't look back, he just ran on and on until his thighs burned and calves ached. When he finally stopped, he was in the Heiðwood forest, just along its edges.

He panted heavily from the run and steadied himself with a hand on an immensely tall birch tree. The rain still poured and he was already soaked down. Loki took a deep breath and craned his neck, sweeping away the wet hair that clung to his face, to look up the trunk of the tree. As he blinked away the droplets of water that fell in his face, he decided this would be his tree; his place to be alone.

Formulating an experiment, Loki dug his claws into the tree and tested the hold. They held firm with all his weight trying to drag them down, and he grinned and quickly dug all his nails into the trunk and began to scale it. As he climbed to the top, the bows covered in leaves started to shelter him from the downpour. He chose a branch near the top and sat on it, his legs and loincloth dangling in the air. He sighed when he breathed in the scent of the birch tree and kept a hand on the trunk. He still felt the faintest mist on his blue skin where he sat, and he looked around him at his chosen perches foliage. He jolted for a moment when his eyes focused on a large spider just inches from his face, hanging onto the remnants of its web. Its long pointed legs lifted and set down again, seeming to fidget. Loki glanced around at his surroundings and noticed shreds of spider webs here and there and he looked back at the spider with a guilty expression. He had sat right in the web and destroyed it.

"Sorry." He said and lifted the back of his hand up to it. He didn't want to freeze it solid by holding it in his palm. Cautiously, it stepped onto the hand and Loki brought it close to his face, inspecting its colours and patterns. He looked at it, mesmerized by the yellow starburst on its back, it raised its legs and slowly stepped onto the space between Loki's eyebrows. Loki's eyes crossed watching it climb.

"Uh..." he stammered as it steadily made its way up his forehead and finally ended its journey at the tip of one of the gilded horns of his crown. It sat there unmoving, content. Loki raised his eyebrows. "Well, I guess you can stay there for now." he said. Honestly, he had forgotten he was even wearing the crown, it was very comfortable.

He sighed again and set his hands in his lap and stared off into the trees, unseeing. He admitted he felt better there, everything smelled so fresh because of the rain. He let the thoughts of Frigga's confession return to him here and the fear rose again, but less intense than before. Did it mean anything that he was Laufey's son?

His thoughts were silenced by a rustling on the forest floor far below him.

"Brother!"

And Loki rolled his eyes but stayed silent, letting Thor's call echo unanswered into the trees. The blonde came into Loki's sight, stopping at the base of the birch exactly where he had stood.

Thor turned his head left and right, listening and searching. He glanced at the tree he stood by and noticed strange marks- the cuts Loki had made while crawling up the tree. He furrowed his brows and leaned closer to inspect the marks. He found more of them further up and he followed the trail with his eyes. At the very top he found Loki, staring down at him with his red eyes. The blonde smiled at him.

"I knew I'd find you," he said and wrapped his arms around the tree, trying to climb up the trunk and failing. He huffed a laugh and hugged the tree harder, "By the Norns, how did you get up there?"

Loki looked down at his brother with bored eyes and stated the obvious, "I am a beast, am I not?"

Thor's smile disappeared, "You are not a beast, Loki."

"That's not what everyone else thinks." he muttered.

Thor saw the lips move but didn't hear the words.

"Get down here, brother; speak to me."

"You don't command me, Thor!" Loki barked and glared at the blonde. Said blonde didn't look away or flinch at his brother's snap, but he changed his tone to something lower, something more serious.

"Mother told me what happened."

The Jötun scoffed and flung himself from the branch, letting himself plummet to the ground. He landed in a crouch and stood inches away from his brother, unfazed by the fall.

"And what did she tell you, hm? That I'm the stolen jewels of the Jötunheim crown?" He hissed at his brother and began speaking faster, starting to lose it with his anger, "She told you to collect me so I can wallow in the fetid air of the castle; so I don't embarrass the family? Well, I will not be collected!" He shouted. The Jötun breathed heavily and turned away, crossing his arms over his chest. Speaking again, he tried to calm himself, "Go away, Thor. I want to be alone."

"No you don't." Thor said, and at that Loki turned back to him and opened his mouth to shout again, but Thor continued. "I know when you want to be alone and this isn't one of those times."

"You presume to know me so well but you are mistaken."

"I know enough that you want attention when you act like a brat." He stated simply. Loki looked away, finding everything else more interesting at that moment after being called out on his crap. "Why are you upset? You ran like I was a demon when I called for you."

Loki's shoulders slumped in defeat and he tried not to sigh too severely. "If mother told you, then you know why I am upset."

"But I don't understand- being Laufey's son just makes you a true prince by blood. Nothing has changed."

"Everything has changed! It only seems like nothing to you and everyone else because no one cares! No one cares that I am Laufey's son!"

Thor raised and dropped his hands in exasperation, "Then why do you care- what does it matter?"

"Because it's all so obvious now as to why! No one cares that Laufey's son lives in the palace with the King of Ásgard because being Jötun is bad enough on its own! Nothing is more horrifying after that fact. Nothing I do now could possibly make everyone hate me more because just being here is terrible enough."

Thor was thoroughly confused now and he squinted his eyes as he shouted back at his brother, "What, you want everyone to hate you? Did you have plans to-"

"I'm saying this is as low as I can go." Loki said in a flat tone and Thor watched him limply, "I thought I was on top of things- that on a scale of love and hate I was at least in the middle and I could work my way up and be loved, somehow, by everyone. But now I know I'm at the bottom, and always have been! Everyone hates me. I couldn't possibly sink any lower."

"No one hates you, brother. And really, why do you give a damn what they think of you? You are a prince and they have nothing to say to that; if they do, they have to take it up with the All Father, and no one challenges him. You can do what you want."

Loki's eyes narrowed at his brother's last words and he repeated it in his head. 'I can do what I want, huh?'

"Loki,"

Red eyes met blue ones and there was a large hand on Loki's shoulder making a slapping noise from their wet skin.

"Mother and Father love you, and you are their son. You are my brother, and I love you. So Laufey is your father, you knew you weren't blood from Odin, they never hid that, just never talked about it. Laufey is an idiot Jötun anyway- you're better off here with us." Thor smiled with his entire face and Loki lightly scoffed at the last remark. Thor knew and laughed, pulling his blue-skinned brother to him in a crushing hug. Loki smiled and hugged him in turn- Thor always knew how to shut him up with a stupid comment. Drawing away and shivering from the cold rain and his brother's body, Thor still smiled,

"Come, let's get home- I'm freezing!"

Loki rolled his eyes but walked away with his tanned brother back to the palace.

* * *

Later in the castle, Loki sat in the library's softest seat with fresh clothes and his hair beginning to curl up at the tips as it dried. Thor laid down on the floor with his hands behind his head, listening to the Jötun read aloud.

"-great deeds are usually wrought at great risks. We will-"

"Holy mother!" Thor sat up in a jolt and screamed.

Startled, Loki almost jumped out of his seat, ready to attack something.

"What, what?!" he cried and Thor's hands were buried in his blonde locks, brushing them out and shaking his head violently. The burly man jumped up and glared at the black and yellow spider that fell out of his hair.

"Oh, that's mine." Loki said blandly, glad the spider had done what he had hoped and crawled onto Thor when they had hugged.

Thor gave his glare to Loki then and seated himself on the other side of Loki's chair, laying down again and keeping an eye on the spider that now crawled on the marble floors. He waved a hand for his brother to continue and Loki picked up the book with a chuckle,

"You scream like a girl."


	6. Chapter 6

"Mother," Loki stepped up to the table in the feasting hall where Frigga sat eating her breakfast. She looked up at him from her seat, stopping mid-chew; it was early morning- the sun hadn't even breached the horizon yet and, yes, Loki was an early riser, but never this early. "Freyja is a friend of yours, yes?" Loki looked nervous and the Queen remembered the coronation and Freyja's and Loki's... interesting interaction.

"Yes." She replied simply.

Loki took a deep breath, "I need to know where she lives."

* * *

"Prince Loki!" The servant girl who opened the door bowed deeply to the prince, never expecting to see him so close. She admitted to herself that she was scared, but also quite thrilled.

Loki himself glanced around nervously and then straightened himself to a more regal pose, "Yes, I need to see Madame Freyja."

The girl nodded at his request and before she could say anything, Freyja's voice called from across the mansion,

"Are those the silky, dulcet tones of a prince I hear?" She appeared from behind the door and leaned her back against the frame, breasts pushed out and one hand daintily touching her thigh. "If it isn't my favourite Jötun Prince of Ásgard, whose freezing touch makes my very body firm," she giggled at her own words and the reaction of her servant girl, "if I could feel your burn at all..."

Loki's brows rose in recognition, "Actually, that is what I've come to-"

"I wish I had known you were coming- I would have worn less."

Loki exhaled sharply, getting tired of the woman's insinuations and he wished she would stop interrupting him. He could very well have her flogged for interrupting the speech of royalty, but he somewhat liked the woman too. And severe punishment for something like that really was harsh. He's sure that he would find someone to use it on in the future though. "I want that spell."

Freyja's hand fell from where it had risen to idly stroke her collar bone and she looked at him with mild astonishment. She stared at the prince and he kept his determined expression in place. She looked at her servant girl then, who had a raging blush on her cheeks from her master's words, and she told her to leave them. The girl nodded and scurried away and Freyja beckoned him inside.

"I can't just give you the spell- I'm not a sorceress. I had it made for me."

"Then I would speak to the one who made it."

Freyja crossed her arms and squinted in confusion, "How would it be of any use to you? It lowers body temperature: you don't need yours any lower."

"I-" Loki stopped himself and sighed. For a split second he wondered if he should really be spouting his intentions to this woman, a woman he didn't even know, when he came to the conclusion that the frank dick-grabbing that occurred a few days ago was enough to classify them as friends. New friends, and friends that needed to set the boundaries, but friends none the less. "I want to touch others." He finally confessed, "I need a spell made specifically for my... condition."

"You can't do this yourself?"

"I've never had to alter my body before."

Freyja pursed her lips and massaged Loki's arm in silent consolation. She understood then that Loki was ostracized here in Ásgard- unable to touch bare skin without causing harm. She also understood that Loki's steel restraint to touch her back after the coronation meant that, although he craved the touch, he didn't want it from her. He was the first Jötun to deny her and she wanted to smile and cry at the thought. Freyja nodded to herself in a decision: she would no longer seek gratification from the prince, she would continue to stand by Queen Frigga as her friend, and watch over and guide Loki as his friend too. She was rather proud of Loki, and proud of herself too.

She sighed and pulled him by the hand up the stairs set on the left wall of the mansion. After reaching the second story of the house, there were a few more steps directly after which led them into a small and circular room. Loki realized this room made up the small tower he had seen on her house when he arrived at her door.

There was hardly room for four people to stand together inside and the prince was sure that Freyja's little sorcery chamber wasn't something she showed off. The wall was lined with curved wooden countertops and shelves which were piled with books and vials and candles. Everything looked similar to what Loki's own seith chambers held, and why not- these were typical seith components, but he noticed things not in this room that he kept in his- vials and jars of pieces of flora and fauna, cauldrons and stones and crystals. The Jötun prince thirsted for knowledge and it certainly showed in all the forms of the arcane he studied- íss seiðen from Jötunheim (which, of course, came naturally to him), and Muspelheim, and even magic from Midgard. He enjoyed his learnings from the land of fire and the control (even though one did not truly control fire) he held through Muspelheim's element made him feel powerful. Elegance and chaos rolled into a yellow-orange wave of heated beauty. Midgard's magic was not quite so glamourous - collecting animals body parts and plant life and mixing them in cauldrons and whatnot. But he was still interested in it and so he learned.

Freyja let Loki stare at the room for the moment it took her to step close to a glass sphere resting in a nest of cloth and touch her fingertips to it. The center of the sphere glowed a bright purple amidst the transparent material and two heard a low hum of a vibration in their ears. The colour in the orb disappeared and the same colour appeared again in a mist-like substance beside Lady Freyja. The mist became solid and formed a woman, arms crossed and legs spread for balance. In a second, the new blonde woman stood before them in dark purple pants and waistcoat, her eyebrows raised in silent question.

"Amora," Freyja spoke and the woman looked at her, "my friend requires your assistance." Freyja smiled at the woman and motioned to Loki, who wondered why Freyja would have and need a calling gem.

Amora gave Loki the up and down and then looked back at her lady friend. She spoke in a low, beautiful voice that underlined Freyja's high and flighty one,

"I thought I gave you the spell you needed for your Jötun conquests." She looked at Loki with a squint, "Aren't you the Prince?"

Loki began to retort when Freyja cut him off with a quiet voice, "He wants a spell like mine, but for him to touch others without the burn."

The purple clad woman kept her arms crossed over her chest and merely glanced at Freyja when she spoke, finding it necessary to keep an eye on Loki. "Are you not a sorcerer, Prince?"

Freyja continued to speak for the Jötun, "He says he's never worked a spell to alter himself."

"Hmm." Amora sniffed and raised her nose in the air, "What happened," she taunted him, "thought you knew everything there was to know about seið?"

Loki's eyes narrowed as he opened his mouth wide in offense, "I would have you know that I practice multiple cultures of sorcery and learn the basics of them all before continuing on to strain myself in advancement. Look," he raised a hand to stop himself before he rambled, "are you willing to assist me or no? I will not waste my time here if all you will do is stand there and insult me!"

Amora dropped her arms and exhaled with the smallest smile gracing her lips. "Alright, I'll create your spell, but what shall I be offered in return? I don't work for free- not even for a prince of Ásgard."

Loki gaped his mouth for just a second before snapping it shut. He smacked himself internally when he realized he hadn't brought or even thought of any kind of payment. "What would you say to a debt? Surely being owed a favour by the royal family would suffice more than what ever petty whim you could think of this very second."

Amora rewarded him with an expression of impressed surprise as she thought it over. It didn't take but a moment until she agreed to the prince's offer and Loki felt relieved-most times his tongue moved before his brain could freeze it and often times that got him into trouble, but there were a few occasions when it saved him.

"Well," Amora began, folding her hands behind her and standing with her ample breasts thrust out, she rocked forwards and back on her heels, "the spell will take a few hours to weave and-"

"May I watch you work?" Loki interrupted. Inside he felt like a fool for asking this woman, who apparently knew so much more about seið than him even though she had to be his age, if he could sit in on her work like a child. But how was he supposed to learn if he didn't see? Didn't he crave knowledge and shouldn't he be aware of how his own spell would be built and how it would work like any sorcerer should?

Amora nodded and smiled, "Sure." She said.

"Well," Freyja clapped her hands together and grinned, "I'll be in the loft. Have fun!" And with that she scooted her way out and left Loki and Amora alone.

Amora sighed in anticipation and turned towards the shelves, waving one hand beside her in a beckoning gesture and pushing away the glass ball that served as her calling gem with the other. A large dusty book picked itself up off the shelf and floated over to the woman, setting itself down lightly in front of her on the counter. She opened the front cover and fingered through the directory as Loki stepped up beside her. He watched her and she glanced at him with her also purple eyes. He would've asked about the odd colour but didn't- the spell was first.

"How proficient are you in brisingr seið?" She asked him as she flipped pages to find the section she needed.

"Very. I studied brisingr seiður for a more concentrated grasp." He fidgeted with the ring on his finger which held his gauntlets in place, "I excel in it actually, right behind íss seiðen, of course." He felt like he was bragging, bringing up his mastery of fire and ice sorcery, but it kind of felt good. He never got to talk about his work.

"Good, you'll need the concept of fire management to make this work." She turned a little towards him and moved all her wavy, sleek blonde hair to sit over one shoulder as she explained to him. "The spell I made for Freyja lowers the temperature of the top layer of her derma so she can touch or be touched by an intense cold," she motioned towards Loki, "such as a Jötun. No doubt you've heard of her affinity for Jötnar?"

Loki nodded seriously and almost shivered at the thought of her touch.

"Well, her spell is constantly active since she has no mind for sorcery and so in essence I've put a curse on her. Your spell will be controlled by you because you do know seith and know them well. I would go so far as to say that the frostbite Frost Giants can give is a sort of self defense, and that is why you will have the benefit of turning this spell on and off."

The sorceress continued on and explained to Loki that his spell would do the opposite of Freyja's- meaning it would heat his skin enough to touch without hurting someone. He would still feel immensely cold to the touch, but not to a painful level. She also explained and demonstrated how to work the spell and Loki watched her in fascination. The woman spoke to him like an equal, with a little bit of snark as well and the Jötun found it refreshing. He was glad to be able to speak intelligently about his craft with someone. Thor never understood, nor wanted to understand seith and his mother, although proficient in her divination seið, did only that. After a few tries and near successes, they both were a little exasperated. Loki was also a little more thrilled. It was hard work, but he wanted this so badly.

"If you could shape-shift, we wouldn't have to be standing here doing this." She stated.

"How so?"

"Well," Amora flipped through the large book again and slammed it shut with a hiss when she didn't find what she was looking for. She closed her eyes for a second to concentrate and she held her hands out, palms up, when a book appeared on them. This one was much thinner than the huge tome on the counter and its leather binding was a blue-green tint with silver symbols and threading. She held the book out to Loki and he took it, his red eyes raking down the cover. He recognized the symbols and drew his brows together in confusion.

"A Light Elf book?" he asked, looking back up at Amora.

"Do you have a problem with that?" She leveled at the prince a glowering glare, daring him to slight the race.

"Not at all!" He felt wary under her leer, "I was merely surprised. How did you acquire this? As far as I knew, Light Elves didn't often share their seiðas studies."

"My father is Elf; mother- Anses. Light Elves are known for their shape-shifting talent and that book," she pointed at it in Loki's grasp, "is only about that."

Loki still held his brows together and looked back and forth between the text and the woman, "And you said shape-shifting would help this along or..."

"No, if you could shift you wouldn't need this spell because-"

"How does that-"

"If you would be silent for a moment I would explain." She raised her brows at him, making sure he stayed quiet. When he did (with a slight smile because he was somehow pleased that someone had the guts to talk back to the Prince of Ásgard) she took a deep relaxing breath and explained while she put away the first book herself.

"Shape-shifting changes your entirety, except for your mind, to the chosen form. So if you were to, say, shift into the form of an Ás, then your temperature would change as well to accommodate. It would be defeat the purpose if you looked like everyone else but with severe frostbite all over your body because your internal and natural body temperature stayed at Frost Giant levels."

Loki brought his lips together in understanding and shifted his eyes around the small room. "I cannot shape-shift." He stated.

"I am willing to wager that you could though, if you knew how, so use that book- study hard. You can practice and use this spell I've made of course, but once you have mastered shifting, you'll no longer need it."

"And if I do not wish to shape-shift? What if I am happy with my blue self and I merely wish to be able to touch others?"

Amora lowered her eyelids in a bored expression that told Loki she knew he was lying. "Honey," she said with a slight chuckle as she waved a hand down her front, "You think the child of a Lósalf looks this good? People that are capable of shape-shifting use it- they're not happy with their appearance. You can't fool me, sir."

He smiled at the blonde, glad that she had called his bluff.

"Well, you know the spell- go home and practice it and then test it out. And then study that text." Amora moved to transport herself to her prior location before being called by Freyja when Loki poked her in the ribs with the book.

"Wait!"

She was already gathering a mist around her for her departure.

"I don't know Elven!" He held up the tome with the cover facing her- he didn't know how to read or speak Elven.

She smirked at him as she faded away, "You'll have to learn then, won't you?" And then she was gone.

Loki blinked and slumped his shoulders, sighing in exasperation- Light Elves were the only race with their own separate language. Jotunheim, Ásgard, Muspelheim and all the other realms spoke one language. He had heard that there hundreds of different languages, including the universal one, spoken on Midgard, but he doubted it. How complicated did life have to be that you couldn't speak to anyone you wanted to? And now here he was, having to learn Elven.

He left the small chamber and trekked down the stairs, staring at the runes on the cover of the book and ran his fingertips over them. The written language was at least very pretty- curly and flowing, unlike the universal runes so straight and angular. Freyja awaited him at her front door and Loki hardly noticed her when she smiled at his concentration. She opened the door and pat him on the back gently in a goodbye and he left her home and made his way back to the palace.

* * *

Loki stood at the door to his parents chambers and he wrung his hands together. He was nervous. He had spent the rest of the day in his alchemy chamber practicing the spell Amora had made for him. He was certain that he had perfected it now- there was no way he would dare try it and risk hurting his mother unless he was certain he could do it. He was nervous at her possible reactions- would she be cross with him at changing himself a little to do this? Would she even want his touch?

He took a deep breath and clenched his fists at his sides. He pushed the doors open and basked in the scent that wafted out- his mother's scent. Even though the windows in his parents chambers could close, they never did and somehow Frigga's flowery scent always lingered strong.

The Jötun stepped inside the room and spotted his mother right where he knew she would be- seated at the bay window. She sat perfectly still, only the slightest breeze moving the locks of her curly golden hair. By the Norns, she was beautiful. In the second that stood there and watched her, hundreds of thoughts and memories came to the forefront of his mind.

The times when she encouraged him to pursue his sorcery studies and the times she defended him against others prejudices about his knowing and practicing seið. When Thor first deemed seið a girls hobby in front of Loki and their mother, he was stabbed in the shoulder with a spear of ice before Frigga could reprimand him for the accusation. Thor never said it again and, though there was no scar to remind him of his big mouth, he looked at his shoulder every once in a while- and remembered the scary look on his blue brother's face and their mother's expression of 'that's what you get'. He tried not to underestimate his brother after that.

Loki remembered the day Frigga took him out on his first ride. The Queen loved horses and loved taking them out to run as fast as they could go. She made Loki wear shoes and gloves for the ride so he wouldn't burn the horse, which he hated but obeyed to please her. They mounted the strongest horse from the royal stables and raced him through Ásgard- dodging people jumping carts until they ran to the expanse of Fangr Valley and continued on through it, the wind pulling and whipping out their clothes and hair. It was exhilarating to move so fast.

Loki was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of his mother's voice.

"Loki," she said softly with a smile. She didn't get up and Loki wished she had, it would've been easier to show her his new power if she had gone in for a hug. He gave her a fake smile in return, too nervous to truly smile just yet.

Frigga saw his insincerity as she always could- the only one to ever see through him. "What ails you, my son?" She asked him as he came closer and stood beside her seat.

He took a shallow breath, "I have something to show you." His heart beat faster as he summoned the invisible spell and his mother nodded. He reached out for her slowly and, for the Jötun, the couple seconds felt like hours until his fingertips touched and curled around the soft skin of her arm. The Queen's eyes widened and she looked down at his blue hand wrapped around her upper arm and then back up into his eyes. Her mouth dropped open in realization and Loki saw the joy begin to creep up into her eyes. He tried to contain his smile at the success of his spell and the reaction of his mother but he found he was too happy for that, and his thin lips stretched into a teeth flashing grin. Frigga gasped and flew from her seat, flinging her arms around the Jotun's neck and laughing with joy. Loki laughed breathily with her and held her tight, his long fingered hands spread over her back. She laughed again and drew away, still holding his at arms length with her hands on his shoulders. She still felt that he was very cold to the touch, but not any where near what it had been before.

Loki raised his hands up to cup her cheeks and the both of them grinned from ear to ear when he felt her warm face and the frost bitten burn that they both would've expected didn't occur.

"Oh, Loki, how are you doing that? It's amazing!"

"I uh," he blushed slightly, becoming sheepish, "I made an acquaintance and she helped me make a spell for it."

Frigga moved them to sit at the window, and she held her sons hands in hers. "You made a friend."

Loki was glad her tone was more of a happy statement rather than one of condescension, like he couldn't make friends even though throughout his childhood and even now he never had any. "An acquaintance." He confirmed with a stiff nod.

But Frigga smiled, "You wouldn't have mentioned her if you didn't like her."

He pursed his lips with a slight smile of his own, "She is a sorceress well versed in seið and seiðas. I don't know her well yet, but she is challenging me."

"She is a Light Elf?" Frigga asked in surprise. Light Elves weren't usually so giving when it came to knowledge. More so when it came to other races.

"Half." He corrected.

Frigga's eyebrows twitched upwards for just a moment at his specificity.

Loki almost blushed when he recognized her insinuation. He said he didn't know her well. And he didn't, but why correct? "It seemed important to her." He proceeded to tell her about his trip to Freyja's home and the interaction with Amora and the book she lent him.

The Queen twiddled her Jötun son's fingers between hers, still reveling in his cold but non-painful touch. "Well, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you with your studies- I don't speak Elvish either! Perhaps I could find you a tutor to help you learn the language?"

Loki shook his head, "No, I will do this myself- I will find my own teacher."

Frigga sighed with a grin on her face. She saw him and Thor growing as adults everyday and her heart filled with pride at Thor's prowess as a warrior and Loki's skill as a sorcerer. Loki's intelligence and Thor's influence- they complimented each other perfectly and the Queen of Ásgard could not have been happier for her sons and their gifts. "Have you shown Thor and your father this new talent?" She asked him.

Loki rose from his seat to leave, it was becoming night and he would leave his mother to rest. "No," he sighed, "Thor, I will show tomorrow, and father... He is busy running the kingdom, Mother, he does not have time for trifles such as this."

Frigga's brows knit together at her son's statement and she stood behind him, reaching out for his hand. "I know he has been rather distant lately, he hardly even has time for me, my son. But perhaps he wouldn't mind a moments reprieve to share in his son's latest gift?"

"Perhaps." Loki agreed.

They stood in silence for a moment, Loki staring off into the middle distance with his red eyes and Frigga still grasping her adopted son's hand in hers while she watched him.

Loki shook his head suddenly and sighed, "I'll leave you to rest, Mother." He smiled at her and she knew it wasn't real, but she let it be. She let his hand slip out of hers and watched him slowly make his way out of her and Odin's bedchambers.

When he closed the golden double doors behind him with a fluid motion of his hands, Frigga sighed herself and sat back down heavily on the bay seat.

* * *

I'm sorry if this is going awfully slow for you. I know Loki and Tony haven't even met yet and this all seems irrelevant but it's about Loki's life, I suppose, and that's just how it's coming out.

Amora has been made purple instead of the green she is drawn with because Loki's green already and I want it to stay separate. Maybe she'll add green to her wardrobe later because her and Loki will be good friends, I have no idea. Also, I totally bullshitted her background and heritage because I liked it and that's, again, how it's coming out.

So, words that popped up, because I know I made this whole thing unnecessarily complicated. I felt the urge to go into specifics concerning magic and races, for me it makes the story a little more... not real, but tangible? Gives it a little more substance.

**Anses**= race in Ásgard

**Light Elf**= race in Alfheim

**Íss**= ice

**Brisingr**=fire

**Seið**= Ásgardian magic

**Seiðen**= Jötunheim magic

**Seiðas**= Alfheim magic

**Seiður**= Muspelheim magic

**Magic/Alchemy**= Earth magic lol I don't think it merits explanation but you never know.

**Seith**= plural for magic (as in discussing different realms' magic at once)

What are you thinking about all these specifics and use of foreign language? Is it too much? Should it be taken out and replaced with more common language or do you like it enough to stay?


	7. Chapter 7

"Whelp... I'm movin' out." Tony stood at the threshold of his father's study, hands in his jeans pockets and rolling back and forth on his heels, a toothless grin on his face.

Havard turned in his chair, "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, there's an abandoned house right off Fangr Valley- I'm movin' my stuff there and makin' it my place." His thumb and forefinger rubbed the edges of his beard while he spoke, his brain already making renovations to the rundown home he would soon occupy.

Tony's father, with his own pencil thin mustache, just stared at him. In Ásgard, children didn't usually leave their parents homes unless they married- Tony wasn't the type to settle down. He remembered that in Midgard, kids liked to strike out on their own and feign independence. Havard finally found his tongue, "You're not going to Midgard to be near your mother?"

"Nope," Tony shoved his hand back into his pocket, "I need a large space for some plans- can't get space like that for free on Earth."

"Huh." Havard nodded simply.

They stared at each other in silence and Tony held on the slightest hope that his father would hug him goodbye- he wouldn't come back if he didn't.

Havard didn't rise from his chair, he merely blinked at his son for a second and said, "Goodbye, Anthony."

Tony turned and walked away. "Bye, Dad." He walked to his room and stood and looked at its near emptiness. He had already moved all but one box of his things to his new dwelling and now he looked into the room with a slight sadness. His mother had been proud to hear that Tony was moving out of his father's house- at least she cared. She even got a little teary-eyed, which made her son nervous because he never knew how to handle crying people. Even though he hadn't lived with her on Earth for a few years now, him leaving the family house for his own signaled to her that he was ready to be independent. For Tony it just meant he was sick of his father and being treated like a six year old. In reality he was nearly twenty years older than that, never mind that he acted like he was only ten years older.

He lived the majority of his life on Midgard with his mother, Maria Stark. Havard had been a visitor to Midgard and had been completely taken by her beauty and her carefree lifestyle. By the time Tony was born, Havard had been called back to Ásgard. Maria kept Anthony with her on Earth when Havard said he couldn't yet look after a child in Ásgard, but that had been fine with her, she couldn't have a child and then have him disappear without a trace. No one would believe her story that a god had come down and loved her. They never married, and although they hardly saw each other since the day of Tony's birth, they still loved each other.

When Maria informed her friends of her pregnancy, of course they all gathered to get a list of names down. While her friends wrote down names like 'Rainbow Sun' and Starfire', she discreetly wrote 'Howard' and 'Bruce' and the like. Although she was one of those so-called 'hippies' like her friends, she never bought into weird star-baby names. She worried that her child would be made fun of in school if they had a name like 'Juniper Harbor Stark'. Truth be told, Anthony wasn't in the list of baby names during her pregnancy. When the doctors handed over the chubby newborn baby, declaring the child a boy, she reached out her arms for him and cooed,

"Oh, my Anthony!" To this day she doesn't know why that name popped into her head- she had finally decided on calling him Steve Rogers after the great 'Captain America' Steve Rogers, whom she and Havard (although he would never admit it) admired. And so he was Anthony Edward Stark.

Tony's first day of school had been an eventful one- the teacher sat down with Maria at one of the yellow plastic 'Fischer Price' tables and chairs and informed her that her son was too advanced for kindergarten and also that he thought his father was a god. It took everything she had not to inform the woman that it was true and that Tony was her half Ásgardian, half Human spawn but somehow she restrained herself and laughed with the teacher about her sons 'wild imagination'. So Tony was bumped up the ranks in school and was finally tested to confirm his genius. Maria was more than proud.

Tony picked up the last box on the floor and settled it on his hip as he left the now empty room and walked out of the house. The new house (which wasn't really new) was a few hours out of the city. From the left side of the stone mansion the city could be seen in the distance, the All Father's palace in all its golden glory towering over it all.

Fangr Valley, where the house sat at the edge of, was pretty much a shallow crater now filled with golden grass nearly a foot high. On the other side of the plain was Heiðwood, a clear and beautiful forest. Heiðwood grew thinly right outside the city and continued on larger and thicker outwards to spread immensely around and a bit down into the field.

Tony stood away from the house and admired it. A portion of the roof had collapsed on one end, and all the shutters were either missing or hanging on for dear life. The other side of the house (where the roof was more or less intact) was missing its wall. Well, not necessarily missing, more like strewn all over the floor of the building where Tony was told a bilgesnipe crashed through. As a whole, the house looked like shit. Tony thought it was glorious. He smiled and made his way inside.

It was definitely a project- rebuilding the dilapidated portions of the place, but this was exactly what he wanted, what he needed. He was forever bored when he wasn't out finding a woman or building or planning something new and exciting. He needed this new space, needed this new project- needed a new life.

When he finally stepped into the house via missing wall on the far end, he set his last box of possessions down and settled his hands on his hips, looking around and surveying the damage. He sighed contentedly and opened the box he had set down. He pulled out his laptop computer he had gotten (and since upgraded) a few years back on Earth. He opened the lid and on the screen a light blue square opened onto it.

"Morning, Jarvis." He said to the box on the screen.

"Good Morning, sir. You're up quite earlier than usual." A voice sounded out of the computers speakers.

"Had to move to the new place," Tony tilted his head a little, "and rebuild it."

"Quite a useful way to spend your time, sir."

"Mm-hmm. Jarvis, open a page and put down my priorities as I list 'em. We'll make it a check list."

On the computer screen, an empty white rectangle appeared and overlapped the blue square a little. "And what shall I file this under?" The voice asked.

"Just uh, put it under 'Renovations'." He was turning and inspecting the immediate area when he began speaking again- listing off large and important tasks like fixing the wall and roof, to small things like sealing the crack on the floor. All the while the computer, Jarvis, filled that page with Tony's commands.

Jarvis was Tony's artificial intelligence system. He created him nearly a month ago after a predicament. He was sitting on the other side of his room, surrounded by stacks of motherboards and piles of circuitry when he needed to look at a reference which was on his laptop, across the room. He had tried to carefully stand and navigate through his mess to reach it and of course he knocked over more than half of it all anyways. He declared it stupid and decided he would create a program that would listen, comprehend, and obey his command. And then Jarvis was born, so to speak, British accent and all.

Jarvis became more and more advanced as Tony talked to him and upgraded him and now he was becoming a true AI- learning from his creator and the disks of dictionaries and wikipedia pages from Earth. Ásgard's information was a little more difficult though. None of their information was digital and if Tony wanted Jarvis to have info about any of the other eight realms, he had to find a book and then either scan it or read it to him. He hated that. If anyone was going to read aloud, it wouldn't be him and it would be read to him!

But Jarvis became more of a person each time he was fed new information, even though he only existed in Tony's laptop, and to Tony, he was a friend. Someone he could talk to who would comprehend his words. That's all he wanted- one person to understand him.

Tony finished making the to-do list and stood next to the laptop, staring at uneven edges of the wall where the rest of it had been toppled down. He rubbed his hands together with a grin on his lips. "Well, let's get the solar charger on the roof, then we'll fix the wall."

"We, sir?" Jarvis drawled, knowing full well he was stationary.

"You know what I mean, sass-machine. Got almost the entire day to charge up the cells!"

With that, he pulled out the thick metal stack that was the solar charger out of the box and crawled up onto the roof and unfolded it. With the cells set up and stable, he slid down and exclaimed, "And now the wall!"

* * *

Sorry Tony's chapters are significantly shorter than Loki's, but that's how it's coming out. And I know we all know who Jarvis is, but I thought he warranted a little explanation for the hell of it.

I didn't do any research on whether or not Fischer-Price existed in the 1960's/70's but there it is anyways.

Tony gets all his technological shit from Earth when he lived there with his momma and when he visits her, otherwise, he builds off of what he has and takes shit apart, making into new stuff.

This still going alright for everyone? Do we even like this story, no matter how freaking slow it is?


	8. Chapter 8

Loki stood in the entryway of the conference hall, leaning against the frame, right hand holding his left arm as he watched Odin, All Father, debate with his council. The hall was actually just a room, much smaller than even Loki's own bedchamber, and dark but for small cauldrons of fire hanging from the ceiling. A circular, thick and heavy metal table sat in the center of the room; nine chairs of the same material surrounding it.

Originally, the seats were occupied by the rulers of each of the nine realms of Yggdrasil: Ásgard, Alfheim, and Vanaheim; Midgard, Jotunheim, and Svartalheim; and Nidavelir, Muspelheim, and Niflheim. Hella, the ruler of Niflheim, did not make appearances often as the dead were an unruly bunch and more arrived everyday to receive her supervision. But the rulers of the realms never met anymore- there was peace now between the lands, even more so now with the truce settled between Jotunheim and Ásgard.

Now Odin occupied this hall with a council of Anses who represented certain aspects of Ásgard.

"What do the vísendakona hope to gain by creating this union?"

"They seek equality amongst themselves so as to not be picked as favourites by individuals. They will learn to work as a team and they believe that their combined efforts will create a more precise prediction and therefore, yield more customers." One asynja beside the King explained.

Across from her, a thin and tall Ás spoke bluntly, "They wish to curry favour with the Norns, my King."

"Yes, well the Norns are very flighty- we'll see how that fares for them." The King almost snorted.

"Sir." A council member to the All Father's right nodded toward the Jötun in the doorway. The King looked and was surprised to see him there.

"Loki." he said in pleased acknowledgment.

"All Father, I did not intend to interrupt." Loki stood straight.

"Not at all," Odin waved a dismissing hand towards the council, "We were just finished."

The council members all gaped their mouths at the dismissal.

"B-but my Lord, we haven't-"

"Council, it has been many weeks since I last saw my sons, and I will see them now, especially when they come to me. We shall reconvene in a fortnight, understood?" The King rose from his chair and laid his hands on the table in finality.

The members all agreed quietly and rose from their own seats to bow to the All Father as he walked away towards the Jötun. He opened an arm to Loki to signal they walk side by side and they made their way down the grand golden halls of the palace, just walking.

"Mother told you I would come to you today, didn't she? Is that why you leave your council so easily?"

"No." Odin folded his hands together behind his back as he walked.

Loki looked at Odin in mild confusion and Odin had seen it.

"Is it really so difficult to believe that I wish to see you?"

Loki gaped his mouth for a moment before snapping it shut and looking forward; he had no answer. He wanted to say yes, he wanted to say sometimes it didn't seem like his father cared about him at all. They never spent any time together, never had much in common to meet for. Whose fault was it really though? Certainly not Odin's. But not Loki's either. Odin never had much interest in seið, and Loki never much in a battle. Sure, they both knew how to do both, but not the same way. Thor was Odin's son, a chip off the old block- golden, strong, brave, and loved. Loki, though, where did he fit into this family? He couldn't even be Frigga's son, even she didn't relate to the Jötun as much as he wanted. She would forever be a mother, and that's not what he wanted now. He wanted love, though he would never call that feeling of emptiness in his heart and stomach 'love' because love held too much of that romantic tone that he despised and craved so much. No, he designated the ache as 'lack of attention' so as to detach himself from it further.

Odin felt a pang of guilt in his heart when Loki had wanted to answer his rhetorical question but didn't. The answer, although unspoken, was clear: yes. Yes it was unbelievable that Odin would want to spend time with his adopted, Jötun son.

The All Father stopped abruptly in his tracks and Loki stepped a few more times before he noticed. "Loki..." Odin glanced at his hands which had fallen by his sides in surprise at the volumes of things said by Loki's silence. He had tried to coalesce his thoughts when Loki spoke quietly.

"Do you hate me, father?"

The wind had been completely knocked out of him by Loki's question and he stared at the Jötun square in his red eyes. Loki stared back, expressionless, as if he already knew the answer, but only wanted to hear it spoken aloud.

"No." Odin said, still looking into the Jotun's eyes.

Loki shifted his glance in uneasiness to the side and down and then back up to Odin's one steely blue eye. "Sometimes I feel that you do." Even though he contemplated saying this to him and decided he would, Loki instantly regretted it the moment it came out of his mouth. "I mean... ugh..." Loki stared down at the floor, "I'm sorry father. That isn't what I wanted to say." He rubbed the semicircle ridge of markings on his forehead with the pads of his index and middle finger and he sighed in sad exasperation, "I don't know what I want to say."

"Loki," Odin's large hand set down heavily on the Jotun's shoulder, "You are not my blood nor even my people, but you are Loki Odinson- _my_ son. And my son is always loved." The king hoped that was enough to get his point across- that he did love Loki, because he could never quite say 'I love you', not even to Frigga. He thanked the Norns that she understood him, even if she was the only one.

But Loki seemed to get it as he smiled and raised a hand to curl around his father's arm in appreciation. Odin saw the hand reach up and his instinct from years of battling with the Frost Giants kicked in and he pulled away from his son, trying to protect his skin from the impending frosty burn. Loki knew the All Father would draw away simply to evade pain, and he reached for the hand that drew away before it would be out of reach.

Odin stared at his hand in his sons grip but didn't drop his mouth open in awe nor look up at Loki in confusion. He stared at their hands, looked up into Loki's face and raised his eyebrows, impressed.

"Well, that's a nifty spell, indeed!" Odin smiled proudly at his son, and Loki grinned in return. Odin vowed then to himself that he would work to give more attention to his sons, as he reached out his both arms and enveloped Loki in a rare hug.

* * *

Ok, so NaNoWriMo has begun and I participate so that means this story will get only a couple updates this month. Like... 2 more chapters and then you'll have to wait until next month because my NaNo book takes precedence.

Thank you to those who reviewed to say you like where we're going with this. I dunno if I've said it yet but Tony is extremely hard for me to write I've discovered. Thought he'd be the easy one and Loki would be tough. Oh well. But ja, trying to flesh Tony out some more because he's sexy and deserves it.

How did Odin's little "I love you" turn out? Believable? I never liked the idea of Odin as an asshole daddy, I think he's just busy as hell and doesn't realize. Just how he is.

Here's your Norse words:

**vísendakona- female seið practioners**

**asynja- female Asgardian (singular)**

**As- male asgardian (singular)**

Tid-bit: My NaNo book is on Norse Mythology lol but it doesn't have anything to do with Marvel. Except for Prince Loki's dashing fucking good looks in "Thor", that's it.

Don't know what NaNoWriMo is?

www. nanowrimo .org


	9. Chapter 9

It was early in the morning when Loki blearily opened his eyes a sliver, disturbed by a faint yelling from the halls just outside of his chambers. He lifted his head from the pillow just a fraction to listen to the noise.

"Hammer!"

Loki rolled his eyes and laid his head back on the pillows right before the doors to the room swung open and an enraged Thor barreled inside.

"Loki!" He shouted and Loki hoisted himself up on his arms lazily. He looked at his brother coming close and he grimaced and held a hand up to shield his vision.

"Ugh, Thor-"

"Where is Mjölnir?"

"-put some clothes on!" Loki made sure his hand blocked out the lower half of his brother's body. It would seem Thor had just awoken and found the great hammer, Mjölnir, missing and wasted no time trying to recover it. Thor slept in the nude.

"Never mind my appearance, trickster," Thor glared at his younger brother from his place at the edge of the bed. Loki tilted his head and raised his eyebrows in disbelief at the nickname.

"Where have you hidden her? She is precious to-"

"Gods, my eyes!" Loki dragged on.

"Tell me!"

"I haven't taken it!" he shouted at Thor and dropped his hand from his eyes and turned his head away. "Have you checked your bath-"

"Mjölnir does not accompany me in the bath."

"It used to."

"Well, not anymore!"

The brothers huffed at each other with angry eyes until Loki flipped back the thin-furred covers of his bed and waved a hand down his body to dress himself with his sorcery. He didn't feel like taking the time to dress the normal way after being woken up so rudely. He combed his fingers through his hair when he turned back to Thor, who stood with his fists on his hips, still completely unashamed of his nudity. Loki sighed.

"I will find out what happened to Mjölnir; I'm sure Heimdal has seen it."

Thor smiled, his anger gone completely.

"Thank you, brother."

Loki made his way out of the bedroom and saw two servant girls pass. They looked in as they walked and blushed furiously at the sight of Thor's butt cheeks.

* * *

A few minutes later, a pale skinned man walked down the rainbow bridge; black hair slicked back over his scalp, and dressed in leather and metal with hints of forest green fabric peeking out in places. He stopped a few feet from another man who stood straight and still, looking very intimidating. The gleaming gold armor he wore reflected off his dark brown skin.

"To Jötunheim again?" The dark man asked, not moving his golden-orange eyes.

The pale man smiled wide, "You always see through me, Heimdal, only you."

Heimdal nodded almost imperceptibly, "It is my job to see anything and everything, Prince Loki."

"Yes, well," Loki kicked gently at the glowing plating of the bridge, "Thor threw his fit about his precious hammer and now instead of pleasing me by futilely searching for it, he commands me to bring it back to him. If he only knew where I put it! Ha!" He laughed at the thought of his brothers expression if he had said he opened the bifrost to Jötunheim and oh so delicately tossed Mjölnir down into the wasteland. He told himself that just imagining it was worth the trouble.

Loki smiled at the guardian and strode past him into the gate of the observatory, his new coat tails flapping out behind him. Heimdal followed the prince into the gates and, stepping up the stairs of the platform in the centre, unlocked the portal.

* * *

Loki flashed onto solid ground after only a second and he almost lost his balance. When he traveled through the bifrost he felt as though he wasn't in his body, he never got used to it and loved the rush he felt afterwards when he recognized the sensation.

Looking out across the landscape of ice and snow, Loki sighed- blistering cold winds and thick snow flew over the landscape. He began his trek and almost smiled into the weather; it was a dry cold so refreshing, sometimes Loki felt stifled even in the lightest heat in Ásgard.

From this long distance he could see the huge spires of ice that made up the capital city of Jötunheim. It looked like a black forest: dark and forbidden. He'd never been to the capital before, never spoken to King Laufey, nor even seen him. He supposed it would have happened sometime; knew that subconsciously he would show up with the curiosity of his king father urging him on. That must have been what brought about this prank: Throw Mjölnir at Jötunheim and when Thor threw his fit and demanded its return he could easily seek out the king himself. Just to ask if he had noticed a hammer lying about, of course.

As he leaned into the wind and made his way forward, Loki clenched his fists and looked down at them when he didn't feel the pain that usually occurred. For a second he was startled when he saw the white skin and clear nails but then he chuckled to himself and remembered that he changed his appearance for the trip. When he had made way for the bifrost, Loki had thought of leaving his looks as they were- showing up at King Laufey's feet just as blue as he was. But what kind of commotion would that cause, he wondered. A Jötun claiming to reside in Ásgard, in the palace as the All Father's son no less? He didn't think it would fare well for him.

Finally begging Amora to teach him the Elvish language herself, he learned and mastered the shapeshifting seiðas. Amora even let him keep the book that had taught him. He remembered testing out appearances after mastering the transformation and made two favourite looks which he decided he would put to use. Amora had been right- when Loki was capable of changing his appearance, he did just that and stayed in it for long periods of time. It was taking the royal family some time to get used to; Frigga nearly screamed and called for the guards when he showed up in her room, blue eyed, pale tanned skin, and curly reddish hair on his scalp and chin. That was his second favourite appearance. His first, and the one he wore now consisted of eyes now a pale green, an homage to Freyja because he saw her eyes as strikingly stunning and they kept his attention whenever he and her interacted, and pale white skin. He kept his hair the same black and slick because it was comfortable. He conjured himself the proper princely attire albeit still black and green (his colours of choice, as he always wore) and left his crown at home as well. Now that he was in the correct clothes,as the All Father would say, he didn't mind it so much- they were made to his specifications (i.e. the pants were looser than the norm, even after all these years he still found the style too crotch restricting).

Loki worried over the authenticity of his newfound appearance when he realized he was already on the outskirts of the city. Around him towered the spires of thick ice, not quite as tall as the ones clustered in the centre of the city, where Loki knew the kings throne was, but they were still gigantic none the less. As the prince briskly walked through the city, he glanced about, nervous that he might attract a lot of attention even though he saw no frost giants. But that didn't mean they weren't there watching him already. A fleeting thought came to him when he looked up at one of the towers of ice that his thick and sharp nails were for climbing them: homes were built into the blocks and there were no ladders to get up and down. Accompanying that thought came a realization of slight fear when he remembered reading about Jötunheim's wildlife- large, tough, and savage.

It was then of course that he heard the faintest footfalls behind him and he stopped dead in his tracks, afraid to turn and see what would most likely devour him in one mouthful, but he did so anyways, very slowly. When he saw two very bulky Jötun guards instead of the beast he had expected, he blinked in surprise and almost sighed in relief. The men glared at him, clutching their weapons tight in their fists, looking near ready to attack. Loki would have continued to stand stock still if he hadn't remembered why they looked so ruffled- he didn't look like them. He had to wonder for a second if this whole thing was a terrible idea, surely they would run him through right now. But he hoped he still had a chance when he slowly raised his hands up beside him in a show of compliance.

"I seek an audience with King Laufey!" He told the guards in a strong voice, though he hardly felt that strong. Of course when he hadn't wanted to attract attention he apparently had. Word must have went out that an Ásgardian wandered the landscape and the guards were sent to collect him.

The men glanced at each other as they decided what they should do, and then they stood close to Loki's sides and lead him into the palace. They knew not to touch him, as he had come peacefully and so they didn't punish him with frost burns. Loki wondered for a moment if he would burn like an Anses under this glamour, because he knew he wouldn't if he looked like himself, but he didn't want to test the theory and blow his cover. As the guards marched forward, Loki followed silently with his head bowed, he felt as if he was being brought before Odin to receive punishment. Like the time he set fire to all the drapes in the castle after declaring he hated the new ones which were hung in his room. He wanted to chuckle at the thought, he had been so young, barely learning how to control the fire he held such an infatuation with. Well, they were rather ugly drapes.

When they entered the throne room, which was surprisingly much smaller in comparison to Ásgard's, more guards joined the ones at his sides and they circled behind him. It was a circular room, pillars standing at large intervals and ice crisscrossing in between them like gigantic spiderwebs. He noticed even more glowing red eyes above the arches in the dark corners. Apparently security of the king was a big deal in Jötunheim.

"What is your purpose here, Ásgardian?"

Loki finally turned his gaze towards the throne and for the first time looked into the eyes of his biological father. He had the sudden urge to blurt out his heritage but restrained himself. For a moment he almost forgot why he had come here and he stammered with his explanation and had to forcibly cut himself off and collect his thoughts before starting again. He was nervous and chastised himself for it- he was a prince! Even if the frost giant before him didn't know it, he would not make a fool of himself in front of this king, in front of his father. Not for a first impression anyway.

"I seek information on the whereabouts of a weapon."

Laufey's eyes narrowed as he wondered aloud, "The All Father sent you to mock me. Surely you know full well where the Casket is."

Loki wanted to slap himself, he had made one sentence to the King and already was deemed a fool. "No! No, sir, I ask about Mjölnir."

To this the Jötun King raised a brow his jaw set hard, "I, unlike the All Father, am no thief."

Apparently going about this formally was making Loki look like an idiot. He exhaled and raised his hands and let them fall again at his sides,

"I'm not saying you're a thief, I was going to say Prince Thor has lost his weapon and-"

"You came to me."

Loki pursed his lips in irritation, "He's sending me to every realm to find a trace of the hammer." He thought up his reasons for asking about Mjölnir on the way. He felt odd about lying to a king, he never lied to Odin, who he still considered his father though there was no blood shared. But he supposed even though this King was his blood, he didn't know him from Adam.

Laufey seemed satisfied and leaned back in the throne, arms out on the rests and knees spread apart. He stared at Loki and Loki returned it, looking a little more arrogant than he should. Laufey raised a hand to his face, one finger sticking out to rest over his lip in thought.

"I am in possession of Mjölnir." He said matter-of-factly and watched for Loki's reaction, all he got was a tensed jaw. "And it will cost the prince to have it returned. The hammer is quite a prize, and only one thing to me is worth more- Lady Freyja's hand." He saw Loki's eyebrows raise in surprise and continued, "Lady Freyja is the most beautiful woman in all the nine realms- even I cannot withstand her charms... as much as I try." He mumbled at the end and Loki understood completely as memories of Freyja's hands on him and his fleeting desire passed through his mind. "So, I will take her into my home and be done with it. That is my condition, no exceptions."

A new plan formed for Loki with Freyja brought into the fray and he almost laughed- oh, yes, he would enjoy this. He smiled at the king and made a slight bow,

"I believe this can be arranged. I will return with Lady Freyja in a fortnight in exchange for Mjölnir." He turned and left the palace, making the long walk back to Ásgard.

* * *

Ja, an update 5 months after I said I would when Nanowrimo was over. Life and other such excuses prevented updates.


	10. Chapter 10

When Loki reappeared in Ásgard, Heimdal gave him a questioning stare- he had no doubt seen the entirety of the princes encounter with Laufey and therefore knew the agreement. The guardian wondered silently what the prince had planned as he watched Loki smile at him and walk away.

As the prince made his way through the city, he kept up his new appearance as an experiment. He noted that while he was still stared at, it was in wonder rather than suspicion or fear for surely the people had never seen this fair skinned man who dressed like royalty before. Loki mused that maybe he would continuously use this glamour since it made him and the rest of Ásgard more comfortable. Not that he cared about anyone else's perception of him... that's what he told himself.

Arriving at a large bricked mansion, Loki grabbed the knocker and rapped it against the door. He sighed and waited, tapping his fingers against his thigh. The door opened and a young girl stood at attention.

"Can I help you, sir?" The girl asked.

Loki straightened his posture, "Yes, I must speak to Lady Freyja."

The girl became nervous and turned to look behind her at the second floor of the home where there was an open door- Freyja's bedroom. She looked back at Loki with a blush on her face,

"Well, umm, she's... rather busy right now."

Loki clicked his tongue and forced the door open, letting himself in, "This is more important than whomever she is with." The servant girl stood by the door frame, stammering at the man who just let himself into her master's home. "And fetch Prince Thor; I need him here right away."

"Who shall I say sends for him?"

He almost shouted at her for her question but remembered he was still under his glamour and therefor did not look like himself.

"Prince Loki." He said.

The girl gaped at him in disbelief, appalled that someone would call themselves after one of the princes of Ásgard, no matter how scary the blue prince was.

Loki noticed her stillness and looked at her expectantly, "Go." he said to her and she hustled out of the mansion. He shut the door behind her and stood, looking up at Freyja's open door and he listened to her soft giggling laughter float out.

He sighed and then shouted across the house, "Freyja!"

It was silent for a moment.

"What?" she shouted back from the room.

"Get down here, I need to talk to you."

"I am currently indisposed." she called back in a sing-song tone.

"I don't care!"

It was silent again and Loki looked around the lady's home while he waited for her. She had apparently redecorated since his last visit- all her furniture were a polished, dark red wood trimmed in gold. Even the curved staircase to his left wad been redone in the new materials; the banister and newel topped in leaf engraved gold. He heard an exasperated sigh and mumbles and then she appeared at the railing, her gaze going from irritated to surprised.

"Loki?"

"Mmhmm."

Freyja grinned at him and another person exited the bedroom from behind her, pulling his shirt on. She turned to him and Loki watched their exchange rather than heard it. Her hands were splayed open over the man's chest and she pushed her lips out in a pout as she spoke to him. The man himself- spiky brown hair and the strangest beard and mustache Loki had ever seen; stranger than Fandral's- was smirking at her but keeping his hands to himself. He laughed soundlessly and nodded and Freyja smiled. She lowered her hands and the man began to walk down the stairs, the lady following a few steps behind him. Loki took this moment to observe the man's strange clothes. He hardly knew how to describe them apart from thin materials, dark colours, and the letters 'AC/DC' spelled across his chest. Looking up at his face and the ridiculous (Loki decided) facial hair, he saw the man watching him too, or rather, sizing him up.

Freyja stepped in front of the odd man at the bottom of the steps and lead him to the door. As he walked by Loki to leave the mansion, they locked eyes and glared, both irritated at each other for completely different reasons. And then he was gone and the door shut behind him.

'_What in Yggdrasil is "AC/DC"_?' Loki wondered to himself.

He was drawn back into reality by his lady friend, who smiled at him,

"Well, aren't you handsome in your pearly white skin!" she said appraisingly and Loki rewarded her with a sheepish smile. "Though I do prefer your blue sky skin, you know me," she said as she pulled him near the table and pushed him into a chair. She called out for her servant girl to bring them drinks before Loki told her he had sent the girl out to fetch his brother, and she raised her eyebrows in question just as Thor burst through the front door breathing hard and his hair blown back as though he had run all the way from the palace. He probably had, thinking it terribly strange for a little girl to be Loki's messenger.

His bright blue eyes settled on Freyja's and then the man sitting beside her. His eyes widened in recognition and surprise, "Loki?"

Loki glanced at his brother cooly, then looked back at Freyja, "What's the finest dress you have?"

* * *

"This is humiliating, brother!"

Thor and Loki sat in a large and extravagant cart at their landing spot in Jotunheim, just starting to head off to King Laufey. The wood was stained a dark forest green and was lined along the edges in gold plating- even the two muscled goats that pulled the cart had their horns gilded. Thor had made a crack abut their horns compared to Loki's crown when he was forced into the cart on the rainbow bridge and had received a tart smack to the back of his head for it.

Thor tugged at the veil covering his face and grumbled loudly, "This tickles my head like a thousand ants crawling upon it!"

"Well, don't take it off, I don't care how itchy you are," Loki shouted from his seat at the reins. A permanent smirk had been on Loki's lips since they left Asgard- there was no way Freyja was going to agree to be the Jotun Kings wife, Loki knew that the moment Laufey named his terms, and he'd had a plan in mind. So here they were, dressed to the nines, Thor in the finest Aesir wedding dress and Loki dressed as 'her' handmaiden. Loki didn't mind the dress except for the tight bodice he wore- it was similar to his usual Frost Giant garb. Thor, however, was beside himself. When the pale-skinned Loki told his brother of the plan, oh the fit he threw! An As as thick, muscled, and as manly as Thor was, wearing a wedding dress and parading himself in front of the King of Jotunheim? Impossible and ridiculous. He only, very reluctantly, agreed when Loki told him it was the only way he'd get Mjolnir back.

As Loki guided them through the icy lands, Thor shivered harshly and declared that he hated Jotunheim while Loki rolled his eyes. Upon arriving in the capital city, the two princes were surprised to find the place empty- just empty as it had been when Loki had come before. Loki silenced his brother when he attempted to comment on it- they were on dangerous grounds now, they need to play their parts right from here on out.

Loki, in his bridesmaids dress, led the cart towards the palace and was greeted by two guards, the same two who had met Loki when he arrived as a male. They did not recognize him. The Jötnar prompted them to the leave the cart and goats that drew it at the entrance, guaranteeing that it would be there waiting for them when the bridesmaid made a fuss about wanting the goats kept nearby. Her excuse was that the goats were on lend to her and Lady Freyja by Prince Thor and he would become cross if she were to return home to Asgard without them or in poor condition. It was true- the two goats were Thor's and he did love them a lot and they were, for the time being, in 'Freyja' and handmaiden 'Lorien's care. Loki was still confused about his compulsion to tell as few lies as possible to the Frost Giant King, but he tried his best to ignore it and get this escapade over with.

Loki slipped of the drivers bench and opened the back gate of the cart, motioning to Thor to climb out. He did so, and nearly fell into the snow when he stepped on the edge of his long dress. Luckily, his brother had been there to steady him, chuckling all the while at his large brothers lack of grace. After getting out of the cart safely, Thor pivoted with the swiftness of a lady and smacked Loki on the back of his head while he latched the gate back into place. The two attending Frost Giants exchanged looks of nervousness with wide eyes as the smaller 'girl' hissed in pain and rubbed the back of her head, glaring at the 'lady' to be wed. Thor straightened himself into a dignified lady's posture and gripped a portion of the gown he wore, lifting it a few inches while he walked purposefully past the guards and into the palace.

"Excuse my girl," Thor said in his nicest female octave, "her mother had a weak grip and a hard floor."

Loki tensed his jaw and ground his teeth at the insult, but trailed after his brother into the palace with the guards still looking a bit bewildered, wondering if Laufey would really want to marry this woman.

After the guards caught up with the 'women', they led them to a large set of doors where they waited for other guards who watched from the dark rafters of the palace to inform the king of their presence. Loki felt like he was at the coronation ceremony again, waiting to be introduced and politely clapped at and ogled. At least in Loki's mind, Thor was the odd one this time. But as the iced doors opened wide, the two (and also the guards) were greeted with a blast of welcoming shouts and cheers- Frost Giants stood and sat around a long stone table, all clapping and smiling at the arrival of Lady Freyja. King Laufey himself stood on the far side of the room, only having stood from his seat at the head of the table, but he smiled wide and motioned for his wife-to-be to come closer and sit beside him.

The Frost Giants still clapped and cheered as Loki led the way to Laufey and pulled out Thor's chair for him as a bridesmaid should, arranging his dress neatly around his feet and then sat on his other side, keeping Thor between him and his biological father. Laufey then raised his hands to silence his audience and he beamed happily as he began a small speech about his new wife. The Frost Giants around the table smiled and nodded during his talk, looking truly happy for the occasion. To Loki, the King sounded sincere and just a tad choked up, as if he couldn't believe he was marrying Freyja- like it was his life-long dream. For all Loki knew, it was- no Jötun was immune to Freyja's charms, Loki included.

Once the Kings speech was concluded, he called for the feast to begin and all the trays on the table were uncovered to reveal their dishes. Thor loaded up his plate immediately until it nearly overflowed- doing the same for his mug of mead. Loki only picked a few things and stared almost in disgust at Thor's plate and how he shoveled it into his mouth under the veil. When he guzzled his mead, Loki glimpsed him begin to lift his mug to dash it on the ground and promptly halted his arm with a firm grip, leaning near his ear to whisper harshly,

"Don't you dare throw that cup to the ground! Only men do that _Lady Freyja_."

Thor grumbled quietly as he put the mug down on the table, "Is that why you never do it?"

That little insult earned him a rough kick under the table, but it seemed worth it, and he let his glass be refilled as he brought a leg of beef up to his mouth.

Thor stuffed himself along with the other Frost Giants, not paying any attention when his brother tried to get him to slow down- saying something about 'lady-like' or some such; Thor wasn't really listening. When King Laufey began to count the number of times his wife-to-be refilled her plate and cup, he began to laugh in surprised amusement and indicated Freyja when his guests looked to him.

"Have you ever seen a lady put away so much food? Or- ha!- drink more than her king?"

Loki knew that Laufey didn't mean anything rude, merely commenting and even complimenting his fiancee, but if the visitors said nothing it would be a little awkward. He put a dainty hand over Thor's arm and smiled at the king of Jötunheim,

"Lady Freyja has not eaten for eight days she was so elated when she was told of your request for her hand."

Laufey looked pleased with Loki's explanation and he leaned toward Thor with the intent to kiss 'her', lifting the veil from 'her' face.

If Thor was completely honest when he would tell this story to his comrades, the reason his eyes were so wide and 'fearful' (as Laufey would comment) was because he nearly wet himself at the thought of kissing the Frost Giant King. But he would insist that his eyes burned with fire at his anger for Laufey having kept Mjölnir from him. It was true enough- he was furious about that, but never you mind that he keeps certain details to himself. Let it be said though that the one thought on his mind just then was '_thank the Norns I shaved my beard_'.

Laufey did comment on Thor's eyes- how frightening they were and Loki was quick to explain away the burn of Thor's cheeks and shockingness of his eyes as a week of sleeplessness from how hot 'Freyja' was to come to Laufey's side. Loki made sure his eyebrows wiggled up and down as he said 'hot' just to play to the King's ego.

"Sire, if I may so inquire," Loki spoke quietly across his brother in his nicest lady voice while the rest of the guests went back to their meals and conversations, "I was informed of an object I am to bring back with me to Asgard- would you enlighten me?"

Laufey's smile did not falter at the light reminder of his promise to return Mjölnir, he was too pleased at his supposed capture of the illustrious Freyja. He leaned to one side of his seat and beckoned down a guards ear for his to whisper into. The guard nodded and walked away through a door behind the king. Thor straightened up when Loki whispered to him what was coming; he began to beef himself up despite the wedding gown he wore, trying to get ready for the next phase of the plan. When the guard returned and Thor saw his hammer being swung by the strap in the guards fingers, anger slowly boiled up in his veins. His only thoughts were of the audacity of Laufey to steal the thunderer's hammer and use it as leverage for Lady Freyja's hand in marriage. It infuriated him!

The guard handed the hammer to Laufey who kneeled before Thor in his wedding dress and laid it on the disguised man's lap. The firm weight of his beloved weapon shot a surge of strength through Thor and he placed a firm grip on the handle, flexing around it tightly. The Jötunheim king still kneeled as he began to quietly speak to his bride, stating again something similar to his first speech when Thor could not stand the sound of his voice any longer. As quick as a flash of lightning, Thor lifted his hammer and, with a mighty swing, drove it straight into Laufey's head. Screams and gasps were strangled out of the guests as the King's royal blue blood splattered onto the table and floor and onto the veil covering Thor's face. For a moment no one moved, too shocked by this brutal event- even Loki was stunned, but certainly not just from the blow, but also from the thoughts that raced through his mind of the consequences for what Thor had just done. But he was pulled out of his thoughts as Thor jerked him out of his chair and began to rush down the halls, running from the guards who finally began to react to the death of their king and chased them with murderous intent.

As the two men in dresses hustled through the halls, thankful that Loki had memorized their way in, Thor began to chuckle with the adrenaline running through him. Loki heard his laughing and scowled,

"You're laughing?!" He shouted as they turned another corner, "You just killed the King of Jötunheim and you're laughing?! Thor!"

"Did you see the look on their faces? You'd believe they've never before seen a man in a dress!" Thor laughed.

"That is _not _what we're talking about! This was not part of the- Where is the cart?"

The brothers had reached the entrance of the palace only to find that the cart had disappeared, making their getaway difficult.

"Risnir! Njóstr?" Thor called for his goats, but they did not come to him. The brothers heard the shouts of the guards coming closer and they looked to find them charging closer, soon to close in on them. "Damn." Thor muttered and twirled his hammer about in a circle beside him. He reached around the waist of his brother and pulled him tight to his side, "Hold on." He said, and with a thrust of Mjölnir forward, the two were jerked off the ground and drug through the air by the force, hurtling away from the Frost Giants. Loki's arms held tightly around his blonde brother as the wind whipped their faces and clothes sharply.

"Argh, Thor- inform me when you're to send us flying through the air!" Loki shouted in complaint.

When they landed at their entry point into Jötunheim from the bifrost, Thor immediately called for Heimdal to bring them home to Asgard.

Upon re-entry to their home realm, the brothers collapsed onto their knees and gasped and panted from the chase, adrenaline just beginning to fall away, and Thor chuckled deeply but slowly still. Loki smacked his brother on the arm as he got up, ripping the bridesmaids gown off himself and revealing the base layers of his regular attire underneath. He threw the gown on the floor and snarled at the thunderer.

"What in the realms were you thinking? The plan was to return home with Mjölnir and Jötunheim intact! Not to commit regicide!"

"I was not aware of the details of the plan." Thor said, attempting to defend himself, but his already wavering smile weakened further.

"Are you so dull that I must make plain every facet of the plot before execution?" Loki exhaled hard and tried to calm himself before squatting in front of his massive sibling and leaning in close. "Thor," he said quietly, "You killed Laufey... Do you understand?"

Thor looked at his hammer beside him on the golden floors of the bifrost gate and saw the cerulean blood that still coated one end of the lump of uru, a feeling of dreadful realization coming upon him through the fog of adrenaline. The distress he showed on his face when he looked up to his disguised Frost Giant brother led Loki to sympathy as the blonde brought his meaty hand to his face and stammered.

"The word you're searching for is 'fuck'." Loki supplied without a hint of humour. He pat his large brother on the shoulder and helped him to his feet, waving Heimdal away as the two made their trek over the rainbow bridge.

* * *

So Thor got a couple jabs in at Loki this time, I can't let Loki have all the fun.

If the whole scene of Laufey being killed and the two running away feels a little weird, I will blame it on the music I was listening to at the time (which were "Where's Your Head At" by Basement Jaxx and "Fighting Man" by DJ Pone and Drixxxie). Odd killing and escape music.

Loki and Tony saw each other for the first time, finally. I'm sorry- only a couple more chapters and then they'll... sorta meet. It'll be pretty Tony-centric.

Also, don't get upset about other people being able to hold Mjölnir just yet, it'll be discussed in the next chapter.

I know Thor's goats names are Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr, I just shortened them for my use and they don't come into play often anyhow.


	11. Chapter 11

When Thor and Loki showed up on Freyja's doorstep, sweaty and exhausted, the woman looked the thunderer up and down and pursed her lips.

"You bloodied my dress." She said simply and allowed them inside.

Thor apologized and changed out of the gown and back into his regular attire, swearing that he would have the royal seamstress make her a new one. Freyja declined, claiming she could have Amora take the blood out for her and that she wasn't surprised that they'd brought it home dirtied. She took the dress upstairs while the brothers made themselves comfortable.

The Thunderer sat heavily in one of Freyja's dining chairs when Loki handed him a damp cloth with which to clean Mjölnir. Sitting beside him and leaning back in his chair, Loki sighed and watched his brother dejectedly clean the blood off the hammer. When he spoke to him next, he spoke quietly and sympathetically,

"I know you didn't intend to kill him, Thor."

Thor growled in frustration and clenched the bloodied rag in his fist, "Urgh! I was furious that he had my hammer! Did you see the way that Frost Giant carried it- like it a toy?"

Loki didn't divulge that he was the one who put the hammer on Jötunheim, but he still hadn't planned on it ending up in Laufey's hands.

"Well, now the truce between the All Father and Laufey is broken, and the Jötunheim King is dead by your hand- war will be upon us."

Thor's head fell into his hands and he growled again. Then he took a deep breath to calm him. "What will we tell Father?"

Loki scoffed, "The truth, of course!"

"What?!" The golden prince's head jerked up to squint at Loki like he just grown eight heads, "We can't say-"

"The truth is that Laufey stole Mjölnir and, when we traveled to Jötunheim to bargain for it- he attacked us and you killed him, yes?"

Thor stared into Loki's eyes, seeing how calm he looked about it all, but he reasoned that Loki had to cover things like this a lot. The man was a trickster after all.

"We cannot tell it any other way, Thor; we must be united in this, you understand."

After a moment Thor nodded and agreed on the story. It was the truth anyway, as Thor knew it- the hammer_ had_ been stolen, and he and Loki _had _gone to retrieve it through a bargain, but Thor decided he couldn't bear the humiliation he would receive by revealing that he had gone about it in a dress, so an attack on Laufey's part it was. He was feeling better about the story already.

A few more moments of going over what they would say to their father, and then they left Freyja's home after assuring her that her spinster life was safe for another day.

* * *

Standing in front of the throne room doors, the princes took deep breaths and steeled themselves for what was surely to be a long and harsh talking to by the All Father. But they opened the doors and strode inside the large hall, seeing Odin 'All Father' waiting with Frigga standing beside him; pulling away from him where she had most likely been whispering teases into his ear.

Choosing to beat Odin to the punch, Loki spoke first when he and Thor reached the base of the throne.

"All Father, has Heimdal told you of the situation?"

The All Father watched the two princes for a moment, no emotion on his face. "I have not been to see Heimdal this day."

Loki sighed regretfully. "Laufey is dead." He said.

Odin continued to watch his sons, waiting for an explanation. The stare of a father never fails to fluster and make children squirm. Just as Loki opened his mouth to speak, Thor spoke up in a confident tone.

"I killed him, Father; it was an accident. He attacked us."

"You were not supposed to be on Jötunheim in the first place."

"He had stolen Mjölnir!"

"And I see you have it back."

"Yes. Loki and I went to Jötunheim to bargain it back when he set his warriors upon us- we were forced to fight our way out. He believed he could defeat us by wielding Mjölnir himself and I had no choice but to-"

"But to prove him wrong by killing him?"

Thor deflated at his father's admonishment and Loki stepped forward to cover him.

"It truly was an accident, Father: Thor cannot comprehend his own strength. But we have Mjölnir back at that cost."

Frigga spoke then, keeping her voice calm, "The truce is broken then... Will we be at war?"

"Yes," Odin confirmed, "The Frost Giants will no doubt seek revenge for their dead king. The both of you were foolish not to come to me when Mjölnir went missing, and now through your folly and presumption a king is dead."

Angered by his father's words, Thor stepped up, "He wouldn't be dead is he hadn't attacked us! _He's_ the arrogant fool who thought he could thieve and ransom from Asgard!"

"**Be silent!**" Odin shouted, startling his wife and effectively snapping shut the princes mouths. With their silence, he spoke quieter, in a calming tone. "I understand what you say, Thor, but _you _must understand that a king is dead and a war has been ignited by your inability to think ahead. We will discuss it at a later time, for now I must speak with the council and prepare for war. Begone now."

The princes bowed and began to walk away when Thor remembered a thought he had meant to ask of his father. He stopped and turned back to him.

"Father..." Thor hesitated, really not being able to believe he was going to ask this of the All Father, "It concerns me that anyone, be it friend or foe, is capable of wielding the hammer against us. I would feel less anxious if I were to easily have Mjölnir within reach..."

Odin nodded slowly, understanding that every moment without the hammer was an uneasy moment for his burly son, having kept Mjölnir by his side for so long. The hammer was a part of him now.

"Leave it with me- I will look into it."

Thor gave his thanks and set Mjölnir on the floor with a heavy '_thump_' before his father and exited the throne room behind Loki.

* * *

"Loki! Brother, you must see this!"

Loki sighed in exasperation from his place on the sofa when Thor burst into his room. He didn't look up from his book, settling for turning the page a little harsher than usual.

"I really wish you would knock before intruding upon my chambers." He grumbled.

Thor laughed the comment off, "There is nothing you need hide from me, brother, but that is not why I come to you now. Father enchanted the hammer so that it may come straight to my hand when I wish it- watch!"

Loki sighed again as he looked over the back of the sofa to see the blonde standing in the middle of his room, one arm extended out to his side, hand open. The raven haired man gifted Thor with a bored expression and Thor nodded in a signal to wait- it was coming.

When a few screams from the palace maids sounded and a crashing and rumbling could be heard, the wall to which Thor's hand was extended blasted open and debris flew across the room right ahead of the mighty hammer which guided itself squarely into the Thunderer's waiting hand.

The muscled Ás grinned with his entire face at his brother for his accomplishment and Loki returned the given joy with a glare, noting the dust and chunks of palace wall all over his chambers. A servant girl on the other side of the wall looked through the freshly made hole in shock.

From down the halls Frigga's voice called, "Thor? What is all this noise?"

Loki's glare broke into a smirk at the sound of their mother. "You've done it now, haven't you?" He sneered at Thor and stood, making himself look shocked and ruffled before yelling out through his open doors. "Mother, Thor's smashing holes in the walls of the palace!"

"What?! Thor!" Queen Frigga chided as she still hustled to get to Loki's room.

Thor shook his head and squinted at Loki, "You are childish, brother."

Loki clicked his tongue, "I could say the same of you, Thor."

* * *

**Another chapter, short and hopefully a little sweet. So Thor's hammer does what it's supposed to now, and there is impending war between Asgard and Jotunheim. What's the first thing to do when Frost Giants are liable to show up at your door? Build a big damn wall.**


End file.
